Madrid Court Sets Hearing for Thirteen Suspects in Elderly Fraud Case
Next week a Madrid court will adjudicate thirteen defendants accused of defrauding elderly clients through the sale of encyclopedias and by pressuring them to pay inflated fees to obtain advice or to unsubscribe as customers. Prosecutors allege that at least ten seniors paid a total of 184,700 euros, with the defendants facing charges related to membership in a criminal organization, ongoing fraud, and falsification of official and commercial documents. The court timetable forecasts prison terms ranging from five to seven years, along with orders to compensate victims for the loss suffered.
According to the prosecutor, between 2011 and 2016 the defendants amassed substantial sums from individual victims, including sums such as 43,000 euros from one person, 37,645 euros from another, and 40,550 euros from a third victim. In total, around 185,000 euros were allegedly taken before authorities intervened, with some offenders found in possession of books and documents that connected them to the scheme. Some seized documents reportedly described certain victims as easy targets or overly trusting, underscoring the manipulation at play in the operation.
library databases
The prosecution describes the scheme as a pattern of exploiting client databases belonging to partner companies. The defendants allegedly shared and repurposed these databases to push sales of books they no longer owned. They targeted older adults and leveraged deception and pressure to secure compliance and continued interactions with the sales network.
As described in the indictment, victims were pressured to make large payments either to purchase the encyclopedia bundles or simply to remove themselves from the database. Through mid-level coordination, the defendants circulated data among themselves to focus on the most vulnerable customers with the intent of maximizing book sales and extracting money from reluctant buyers.
The Complete Scam: Seizure Threats
One case involved a victim who lost more than 40,000 euros. In February 2015, a defendant contacted the victim using information from a former customer and claimed there was a debt amounting to 15,600 euros allegedly linked to the victim’s sister, who had died and was not a client of the publisher in question. The perpetrator warned that failure to pay would lead to formal reports and the seizure of the victim’s home.
The victim paid an initial 2,300 euros, followed by 12,700 euros, with the defendant promising to provide proof of payment that never materialized. In another instance, an associate went to the elderly woman’s residence, posing as a lawyer, and insinuated that the person might have fallen victim to a scam. This approach aimed to earn the victim’s trust before a second defendant demanded 2,000 euros for legal services, threatening reporting and potential displacement of residence if payment was not made. Subsequently, a third participant visited the home twice, pressing for 5,000 and then 10,000 euros to secure a book purchase.
On other occasions, the victim paid 5,500 euros and 4,500 euros after engagements with multiple defendants. Additional transactions included two payments totaling 3,000 euros that occurred without the victim’s explicit consent, as well as the purchase of additional research book collections for 3,960 euros. Authorities emphasize that similar patterns appeared across multiple cases, with at least one instance leaving an elderly woman in a precarious financial situation.
The case file highlights a persistent strategy of exploiting fear, confusion, and social trust to extract funds from vulnerable individuals. The court will consider whether the actions constituted coordinated criminal activity, the scale of financial harm, and the impact on the victims as it weighs verdicts and potential sentences.