They post advertisements and fake news on the internet using your image. Dani Rovira, Pablo Motos, Alberto Chicote or David Broncano. They guarantee it goes into the pockets of these celebs large sum of money thanks to its investments bitcoin, a cryptocurrency and digital payment system. This is how they lure their victims and encourage them to entrust their savings to this “golden lake”. In 2019, several investors reported being scammed using this method. Three years later, the scammers went back to their old ways, as CASO ABIERTO, Prensa Ibérica’s portal of investigations and events, learned.
A businessman from Barcelona went to the Ciudad Condal Civil Guard Command on 1 March and reported that 54,500 euros had been defrauded in just one month. As reported in this media-accessed complaint, the man was browsing the Economics section of a national newspaper on January 14th when a piece of news was displayed on his computer: “Dani Rovira’s latest investment surprises experts and scares big banks”.
“Get rich from home”
The article contained in A photo of Pablo Motos and another photo of Rovira“There are Spaniards pocket millions of euros Thanks to this golden lagoon, they got out of their house”. The businessman, who likes to invest in currencies, clicked on the news and gave his name and phone number so they could send him more information.
Then, “A woman who speaks Spanish with a British accent called me on a phone with a British prefix and introduced herself as Mayya, she said she would be my personal advisor. She was very kind, attentive and very intelligent, with business knowledge and while guiding me on possible investments, he was worried about me, about things like whether I ate well or slept well“, recalls this Catalan executive in his remarks to OPEN CASE.
400 Euros per week
Mayya convinced him to put on a performance. Initial investment of 500 euros and then gave him a username and password so he could access a “trading” web page and see in real time how his money was fluctuating. “I invested in companies” gas, gold, on amazon… I have experience, I’m not a beginner in these matters, so I did the checks. But they have such a well-established scam that the data they presented in the market were realalso the platform and account where they made me deposit my money, which you didn’t suspect they had defrauded you at first”, the businessman confirmed.
In just a week, his investment paid off: “I went from 500 euros to 900I earned 400 Euros with this in a few days”. Then Mayya asked him for more money.
vulnerable to loneliness
To persuade him, the woman “convinced and soaped the victim with the love bombing method,” or she was using the love bombing method, according to the employer’s complaint. Woman “benefited from vulnerability to loneliness This 53-year-old widower slowly gained her trust until she started a company. pseudo-romantic relationship without sexual elements“. The businessman invested another 6,000 euros. Then he delivered another 7,000 euros and 9,000 euros… and thus 54,500 euros. To reach this figure, he had to request two bank loans of 20,000 and 15,000 euros, respectively.
“Mayya called me at least three times a day and we texted each other on WhatsApp every hour,” he recalls. Many of these conversations and messages are already in the hands of the Civil Guard. The woman exchanged personal whatsapp with messages to encourage the businessman when an investment went wrong, advice on financial transactions that she carried out with the man’s passwords: “Hello dear. Good morning… I slept at all. You should sleep honey take care of yourself I know everything will be better“.
the consequences of being rich
Some of these messages show how the man hesitates or says “stop operations” and “slow down”. Even after several sleepless nights, he admits to the woman that he was worried about the procedure: “I’m a little stressed and nervous”. So she asks him why, and he replies: “I don’t know, everything, I feel like this, I’m nervous, but fine, I believe it will pass, I need a massage”. Mayya’s reply: “These are the consequences and necessities of being rich”and sends him a heart.
The employer even goes so far as to ask you to send him. a picture of youbut he answers: “haha, I can’t post here (referring to the office)”.
Two million for Valentine’s Day
On February 22, a few days after Mayya’s informant congratulated her on Valentine’s Day hearts with whatsappThe man wakes up with a surprise and writes to his manager: “I looked at the account and there were two million euros. Is this real honey? I must be dreaming. Please wake me up from what I’m going through honey, I don’t know what to say. I have no words, I don’t believe it until I see the money.”
He did not see a single euro. “I asked him to withdraw some of the money and he said he had to pay some amount to do it. 2.5% commission to your company. In other words, in order for him to receive one million euros of the money he allegedly won, he had to give it to them first. 25,000 euros“condemns the businessman, represented by lawyer José Antonio Tuero and recommended by Alberto Mondragón, responsible for the website denuncioestafa.com.
“I noticed the scam. I said I hadn’t taken a penny out of my account. First they gave me my money, and I paid them from that money, I offered to pay three times the commission they wanted, but it didn’t work. My account was blocked the next day.”
Ireland and the USA
With the help of a computer scientist, the businessman managed to find out that the scammers work from servers hosted on servers. Ireland and the United States, which makes it harder for researchers to find them. In May 2019, Pablo Motos already condemned in ‘El Hormiguero’ he said they used his picture to deceive many users: “This is a post where a picture of me appeared. without my permission and a supposed way to make easy money through a link. I insist: It’s a scam and I’m using this opportunity to report it here because I can’t defend myself.
The host added: “Neither we nor my lawyers have located the company. The Civil Guards of computer crime are involved because they are camouflaged in different areas in different parts of the world.”
Since filing his complaint, the Barcelona businessman has continued to receive calls from phones similar to Mayya’s, trying to get more money from him: british treasureThey asked me for a loan, they wanted me to pay taxes for operating in your country and wanting to issue my money”.