A 24-year-old guy in Seville has been taken into custody by National Police officers on suspicion of committing over 70 frauds. He worked in a number of places throughout Spain, including Bilbao, Cádiz, Seville, Granada, and Málaga. He called victims, pretended to be a security department employee at different banks, and used a variety of techniques to trick them into giving him a lot of money. Nine cell phones and a PC were found during the search.

Following a report from a victim who had been robbed of €37,700 through vishing and smishing, the inquiry got underway in late 2023.

What are vishing and smishing?

Smishing is a tactic when a hacker sends a victim an SMS posing as a trustworthy organization—in this case, a bank—with the intention of obtaining personal data or collecting money. Under false pretences, the message usually asks consumers to call a premium-rate number or click on a link to a phoney website—the latter being the technique employed by the scammer. The criminal was able to access and examine the victim’s bank account in detail while they typed their passwords. This strengthened their deceit by ensuring the user’s faith and enabling them to, for instance, list the previous three charges made by each of them in their own accounts.

Another kind of social engineering fraud is called “vishing,” which is a phone call that poses as a business to get the victim’s private information. The suspect in this scam likewise uses this pretext.

The suspect had information about each victim before reaching out to them, which he utilised to support his claimed position as a bank security guard, even going so far as to use spoofing.

Spoofing: What is it?

Spoofing, which means to lie or deceive, is a widely popular identity theft tactic, particularly when done by email. In this instance, the criminal took advantage of an application that made it possible to change the user’s phone number. By altering it to the name of a bank department, the caller increased the legitimacy of his hoax.

He specifically pretended to prevent a transfer from the fictitious security department of the victims’ individual banks in order to reap the financial gain, after which he indicated that some fictitious instructions were being monitored that would end the operation. The transfer was executed as a result of these instructions, and the author also carried out the process with other transfer applications.

Internet credit, consumer credit, fast money, and more.

The stolen funds were all received in different bank accounts that were also formed by using prepaid mobile phone lines to trick their holders into accepting fictitious work offers.

After viewing the advertisement and providing their phone number, the new victims were led through an instant messaging app to register several bank accounts without getting paid.

Following a rigorous investigation by the Judicial Group of the District Police Station of Abastos and the Cybercrime Group of the Provincial Brigade of the Judicial Police of Valencia, the officers were able to locate the suspect. Despite his numerous movements throughout Spanish territory, the officers were able to arrest him at the end of November of last year and confiscate a computer and nine cell phones, which he used to commit the crimes.

A man with no previous police record who committed fraud, identity theft, and money laundering has been brought before a judge.