this “Team @” of the Alicante Civil Guard eliminated a group of accused cybercriminals. cheat at least 188,000 euros Eleven companies from Alicante and six other provinces through Cyber fraud known as BEC (Business Email Compromise) or corporate email interaction. In the operation led by Elche Instruction Court No. 3, 12 people were arrested in Manresa (Barcelona), and seven cases of fraud against users of a website dedicated to the sale of objects among individuals were also brought to light. The judicial direction of this operation is in the Elche Civil Court No. 3 and in the province of Alicante they were affected. Three companies from Alicante, Crevillent and Muro.
The investigation began in January 2022, following a complaint from one person. Crevillent shipping company More than 37,000 Euros were defrauded. According to the complaining company, cyber attack and intercepted some emails sent to a changed supplier to divert and misdirect payment of some invoices to other bank accounts.
Cyber fraud is known as BEC (Business Email Compromise) and is an advanced system for medium and small businesses that combines “phishing”, “vishing” and social engineering tactics. In order to deceive their customers, criminals send emails from e-mail addresses pretending to be from supplier companies and make these latest bank transfers to the criminals’ accounts.
Alicante Civil Guard Command “Team @” took charge of the investigations and subsequently Analyze more than fifty bank accounts and hundreds of bank transactions involving large sums of money have proven to be a very active group of cybercriminals on national soil.
victims
Thus, in addition to the defrauded company in Crevillent, agents identified two more victims in Alicante and Muro, and eight more at companies in the states. Madrid, Granada, Asturias, Murcia, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Malaga. The defrauded money diverted 188,000 Euros to other bank accounts in Spain or Lithuania to launder and also received cryptocurrencies.
Investigations revealed that, in addition to scam companies, they used the identity of an elderly person and created various profiles on websites dedicated to the sale of objects among individuals. scam of 2,800 euros to seven buyers. These new victims have filed complaints in the Balearic Islands, Burgos, Lleida, Valencia, Barcelona, Vizcaya and Girona.
In this deception, the cybercriminals contacted potential buyers and then invited them to leave both the website and the app and continue the sale privately. When they got out, the criminals instructed them to pay for the product through a mobile phone payment platform. After the payments were made, the buyers never heard from the criminals or the purchased items again.
Civil Guard detected 12 members of the network allegedly residing in Manresa The abuse phase of the operation, which was supported by the Alicante Command Technological Research Team (EDITE) and the Citizen Security Unit (Usecic), between 28-30 September, was carried out with arrests and searches.
Agents made two searches in Manresa and confiscated computers, cell phones, bank documents and other documents for further analysis. All of the detainees, aged 19 to 24, are male and of Moroccan and Spanish nationality.
Crimes
The Civil Guard accuses them of committing crimes, based on varying degrees of involvement. fraud, money laundering, against confidentiality of communications, identity theft and membership of a criminal organization.
this three organizational leaders the culprit was handed over to the Manresa security court, the rest released on precaution the prohibition to leave the territory of the country and the obligation to periodically appear in court. The confiscated items for the conducted police proceedings and investigations were presented to the Elche No. 3 Instruction Court.