Mossos investigates where eight-faced scammer got DNI

Albert HernandezDistrict Investigation Unit Corporal Sarria-Sant GervasiHe tells that they put a magnifying glass on the fraudster for the first time after two similar complaints were sent to the courthouse. Mossos d’Esquadra by customers of the above-mentioned bank who claimed to be the victim of a fraud. In both cases, they reported, a mysterious woman appeared in the office of the financial company, presented her identity that they had recently lost in a theft, and pretended to be themselves and withdrew substantial sums from the banks involved. accounts.

“We went to the bank and there they told us that the company’s own anti-fraud group was working on that woman’s case.” They collected other complaints from more customers and after examining the security cameras, they had a suspect. He dressed differently for every occasion. you wore different hairstyles, but he always did the same thing: handing over a stolen ID to the cashiers, pretending to be him in the photo, and then requesting a transfer or getting cash. Investigators knew what the woman they were looking for looked like, but had no clue who the impostor really was.

It did not always go well for her, the bank was also aware of the failed attempts, despite the troublesome hairstyles: the employee looked at the document, looked at it and asked what had happened when he noticed the face in the picture. and the woman across the table didn’t fit either. It’s an endangered situation in which she runs away by building a wall of excuses as she packs her bag and jacket and leaves the office. But he was successful eight times and made a small fortune: 75.000 €.

all crimes committed between September and October. There was no matching profile among the registered criminals. Could it be a woman who struck the first blow at the age of 45, who, aside from unsuccessful attempts, committed seven more crimes in two months without a criminal record?

That was the case. A few days ago, the Civil Guards arrested a woman in Madrid for doing exactly the same crook Mossos was after, Hernández explains. After the arrest, armed institute agents “photographed him”. With this image, the Catalan police identified him by comparing him with the suspect in the camera recordings of the bank offices where he was protesting. That’s how they gave it a face and a name at the same time: it’s neighbor to a municipality in the Vallès Occidental region.

“We started following him,” Hernández explains, adding that a few days later the suspect broke into a bank office in Manresa to commit a crime again. Mossos avoided this by sending a citizen security patrol to the branch. It was the last extortion that the impostor tried: he was arrested by investigators a few days later. “In every circumstance committed three different crimes‘ lists Hernandez: “fraud, extortion and documentary fraud”. Therefore, the inspector believes that even if he is released on charges, justice against the woman will be harsh. The science police prepared a report in which his full identity was determined from the camera recordings.

Investigators tracked him down, detained and questioned him, giving him a full account of how he behaved: he got a stolen DNI, broke into a bank office where no one knew him, and handed over this identity document and pretended to be. The beneficiary asked absently how much money he had in his bank account. That’s how he found out if the stolen DNI belonged to a woman who had an account with CaixaBank. And if it did, he would go from the first office to another office and repeat the fraud, but this time to drain his checking accounts.

The case is almost closed. Except where he got the stolen IDs. Mossos is now investigating its origins to prove whether it was just one leg of a more important network that gave him the stolen cards in exchange for some of the money. market for his bill.