The National Police of Almeria arrested in Lorca one of the alleged «most prolific» fraudsters in the country, accused of obtaining almost 150,000 euros through 308 loans in the name of other people and who used social networks to meet couples, whom he tricked into becoming victims of his frauds.
The agents accredited that, in the last few months, he managed 576 ID cards, 313 bank accounts, and 31 credit cards, as well as 231 telephone SIM cards. The young man was arrested in Lorca when he was visiting a relative in hospital, as the «sophistication» he achieved in his alleged scams and his way of life, in which he used the identities he usurped to stay in hotels, had «made his arrest extremely difficult», police sources indicate.
The investigation by the Cybercrime Group began at the end of 2021 as a result of a complaint filed at the Provincial Police Station of León, in which a fraudulent contracting of high-end telephone lines and mobile terminals was reported, usurping the identity of the complainant. The first investigations confirmed that both the lines and the handsets were paid for with accounts that the fraudster had opened in the name of other people.
The metadata trail
By analysing the metadata of the bank and telephone transactions, the cybercrime specialists were able to link this incident to dozens of scams and identity theft scams that had taken place throughout Spain, and were able to identify the alleged fraudster as a young man born in Totana, who already had a police record for having committed small-scale scams.
Once identified, the investigators used all their resources to locate him, but the task was «complicated», as the detainee «had no known residence, stayed in hotels where he provided the identity of other people and travelled in vehicles that he rented by falsifying his documentation».
The National Police found that he used social networks to meet his partners, whom he deceived.
The sixth group of the Provincial Judicial Police Brigade of Almeria issued a search and arrest warrant for the alleged fraudster, an order that he managed to circumvent when he was identified by another police force by presenting the documentation of an impersonator with whom he bore a strong physical resemblance.
The National Police tightened the siege and the investigators became «increasingly» familiar with an «increasingly» refined modus operandi because he allegedly used certain online applications to meet girls and seduce them, playing a fictitious character until he managed to move in with them. Once at his victims’ homes, the young man «took all the documentation he had access to, both from them and from their family and friends, to use in his frauds».
The young man lied to his partners, one of whom lived in the town of Huércal de Almería, about his studies, his profession and his personal life. Finally, the agents found out that the young man intended to visit a relative in the hospital Rafael Méndez de and it was there that they managed to arrest him without opposition. The arrested man was placed at the disposal of the Lorca Court of Instruction number 2 on duty, which ordered him to be remanded in custody.