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The current state of alarm is serving so that multitudes of criminals who do not need to step on the street to commit crimes become millionaires, as has been the case with a group of hackers from Valencia, who have managed to steal more than 2.2 million euros. hacking companies from all over Europe.

The Alicante Civil Guard has arrested six men in Valènca and Mislata as alleged perpetrators of this cyber-fraud . The crimes of fraud, discovery and disclosure of secrets, money laundering, documentary falsification and criminal organization are attributed to them. The scammed companies are from Spain, Europe and the United States and, of the 2.2 million stolen, the Civil Guard has so far been able to recover 800,000 euros .

One of the most serious aspects of this operation lies in how the alarm state has been used as a cover for criminals. Given the economic situation, with a multitude of people unable to work or who have lost their jobs, these hackers used more than 60 people in extreme situations as cover, as digital mules that served as figurehead for their crimes and who could now be accused with them.

Mules, intermediaries and hostages

The Civil Guard has explained that the "Homes" operation has dismantled one of the most active criminal organizations in Spain, supposedly specialized in committing fraud crimes using the method known as "man in the middle".

However, according to the Civil Guard, the most important challenge has been to reach the alleged leaders of this structured and hierarchical organization, which supposedly had more than 60 people at its disposal, to hack accounts, distribute money and, what more importantly, prevent your true identity from being known.

The group apparently had a pyramid hierarchy structure , which made strong use of internal discipline and control, and whose members were divided into chiefs, economic mule controllers, document forgery plot, and logistics and liaison plot. the dome seated abroad.

The function of the mule controllers was to find people willing to work as economic mules so that they would open an account in which to receive the money, in exchange for a percentage (between 5% and 10%) and accompany them to ATMs, to make sure they were getting cash. If they were not able to withdraw the cash in full or transfer it to the other accounts of the organization, the mule did not charge their percentage.

The mules were recruited from among people with financial needs , many of them aggravated by the current situation of the state of alarm, which provided their personal data to the controllers for opening and managing accounts. In this way, the exposed person, the one at risk to the authorities, was always the mule, never the controller.

The alleged head of the organization was informed of the financial amount from the scam and it was he who selected a main mule to receive the money. In turn, he notified the controller so that, as soon as he received the money, he would distribute it among other mules .

Once each controller had their share of the cash, the support and logistics branch appeared, who collected all this cash, concentrated it and quickly took it to the boss, who deducted the relevant commissions and sent it to the dome .

In the event that the money was retained by the banking entities on suspicion of money laundering, the branch of falsification of documents appeared, who issued false commercial contracts in the name of the mules to try to unblock the retained capital.

If there was any kind of problem with the mules or the controllers (for example, that the accounts did not balance, or if they kept the money) they would launch the organization's discipline apparatus, which would go to the place where these people or their families were. , to threaten them .

Operation Homes

This type of scam involves attacking companies' email accounts to obtain data on pending invoices, bank accounts, and potential customers. Once inside the computer system, they select one of these clients and, after impersonating the real company, request that the money be deposited into a different account than the one agreed, owned by the criminal organization.

Once the deposit is made into these fraudulent accounts, the scammers divide the money and distribute it, through small transfers , to accounts of "economic mules" who, later, extract it, after receiving a commission that ranges between 5% and 10% of the amount received.

In this case, it has been agents of the Judicial Police and the Investigation Area of ​​the Civil Guard of Vila Joiosa who have managed to dismantle this alleged organization. The operation started after the complaint filed by two citizens of the Netherlands , about a scam in the purchase of a home in that same town, last November 2019.

During the months that the investigation lasted, it has been possible to locate more than 40 scammed companies , throughout Spain, in various European countries (France, Romania and Portugal) and in the United States. The affected companies belong to areas such as laboratories, cooperatives, private schools, hotels, energy, transportation or even private payrolls. 150 bank accounts from different financial entities have been monitored and blocked.

The six arrested, already in prison

However, on May 6 a broad operation was deployed in València and Mislata where the six alleged leaders of the organization, all Spaniards, aged between 34 and 52 , were arrested as alleged perpetrators of the fraud crimes of more 2,200,000 euros, criminal organization, discovery and disclosure of secrets, money laundering and documentary falsehood.

In the different house searches carried out, nearly 27,000 euros in cash, numerous state-of-the-art mobile phones, diaries with notes on criminal economic transactions and a vehicle were seized .

It has been achieved i dentify more than 60 mules and has managed to recover more than 800,000 euros , locked in fraudulent bank accounts, although this amount may increase as progress in the investigation, since it remains open. Dozens of new arrests are also anticipated.

All detainees have been placed in provisional prison without bail, awaiting trial.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Valencia
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  • Alicante

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