A 26-year-old Algerian woman was arrested by the National Police in Alicante on suspicion of defrauding 47,000 euros in a real estate operation. She acted as intermediary between a compatriot and a real estate agency and managed to have the house bought in the victim’s name. She exploited that the victim resided outside Spain and did not know Spanish, even posing as the victim’s partner. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
She also threatened to report the victim for gender-based violence if he reported the crime, despite never having had any romantic relationship. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
The origins date back to 2023, when the tenant of a home in Valencia, where the victim resided, refused to pay rent with a variety of excuses. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
<pSeeing this, the landlord, who wanted to sell the Valencia home and buy one in Alicante, suggested to the tenant that she look for an affordable property in that city to purchase, offering her the chance to move into the new home and vacate the Valencia one, lowering the rent so she could manage the payments. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
The tenant accepted the landlord’s offer and found a property in Alicante that pleased the buyer, beginning the purchase process with a real estate agency. The tenant offered to act as intermediary because the buyer, of Algerian nationality, resided outside Spain and did not know Spanish. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
It appears that the victim and the tenant showed up at the real estate agency, where the woman led the negotiations at all times, even claiming that they were a couple and that the home would be bought to live together. The buyer, unaware due to the language barrier, did not know this was false, as later police investigations revealed. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
Reservation
A few days later they returned to the real estate offices and completed a reservation in which the tenant was listed as the owner of the reservation, which did not seem unusual to the buyer. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
The meticulous plan took shape when the landlord left the country again and the tenant went back to the agency to request the keys to the reserved home under the pretext of moving, and the agency staff granted access. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
Sometime around May of the current year, the agency received the transfer from the buyer for the total price of the purchase; the notarial process began and the tenant appeared as the sole buyer in the deed of acquisition. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
When the victim learned of the deception and his status as a victim of fraud, he told the tenant of his intent to report the incident. She replied that she would sue him for gender-based violence, warning that such crimes carry heavy penalties in Spain, a threat she eventually carried out. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.
Ultimately, the victim decided to file a report; the Judicial Police from the Alicante Provincial Police Station conducted the investigations, which helped clarify the facts and led to the arrest of the suspect as the alleged author of fraud and coercion, who already had prior records related to similar offenses, including some tied to real estate usurpation. Source: Policía Nacional, Alicante.