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Spain arrests, WhatsApp scheme
Screenshot from a video by Spanish police of arrests of suspects in a
WhatsApp scheme. Image: Guardia Civil / X
Daryna Antoniuk
May 1st, 2024

More than 100 arrested in Spain in $900,000 WhatsApp scheme

Spanish police have arrested more than 100 people who stole EUR850,000
(more than $900,000) through WhatsApp by pretending to be their
victims' family members in urgent need of help.

According to a statement by the Guardia Civil, one of Spain's police
forces, the suspects -- men and women aged between 20 and 60 -- were
arrested from February to April in seven Spanish provinces. All of
them were charged with fraud, money laundering, and being part of a
criminal organization.

    #OperacionesGC | Mas de 100 detenidos por toda Espana por estafar
    casi un millon de EUR por el metodo del #HijoEnApuros

    >[?]Localizadas mas de 500 cuentas bancarias que el grupo criminal
    utilizaba para recibir el dinero.

    >[?]Las transferencias estafadas a cada victima iban desde los...
    pic.twitter.com/skvbEx8KA4

    -- Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) April 30, 2024


To trick their victims, the scammers contacted them on WhatsApp
posing as a family member, typically a son, in some distressing
situation requiring urgent financial help.

Money transfers from 238 victims ranged from EUR800 to EUR55,000.

The scammers were so convincing that in most cases, they managed to
get continuous payments from their victims, according to the police.

Law enforcement also identified more than 500 bank accounts that the
scammers used to transfer the money. The fraudsters also registered
nearly 100 phone numbers using false identities.

This wasn't the first time the hackers used such a scheme to trick
Spanish citizens. Earlier in January, local police arrested 59
members of a criminal gang that stole over EUR460,000 ($490,000) by
convincing families that their children, often students abroad, were
in trouble and urgently needed the money.

According to the police, the hackers used social media to find
potential targets and collect as much information about them as
possible to make the conversation seem credible.

The so-called "family-in-need" schemes are common among hackers
worldwide. In January, the U.S. charged 16 individuals who defrauded
elderly Americans out of millions of dollars by pretending to be
their relatives in urgent need of money.

One American family was scammed out of hundreds of dollars earlier in
March when a group of hackers convinced them that their daughter had
been abducted by Mexican authorities.

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  * scam
  * Impersonation scams
  * Spain
  * arrests
  * WhatsApp

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Daryna Antoniuk

Daryna Antoniuk

is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes
about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the
state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was
a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published
at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.

Briefs

  * Wichita government shuts down systems after ransomware incident
    May 6th, 2024
  * European raids shut down call centers used to 'shock and cheat'
    victimsMay 3rd, 2024
  * Newly identified botnet targets decade-old flaw in unpatched
    D-Link devicesMay 2nd, 2024
  * Iranian state-backed cyber spies continue to impersonate media
    brands, think tanksMay 2nd, 2024
  * Zelensky officially dismisses Ukrainian security services' cyber
    chiefMay 1st, 2024
  * It's time to rethink the national vulnerabilities database for
    the AI era, senators sayMay 1st, 2024
  * More than 100 arrested in Spain in $900,000 WhatsApp schemeMay
    1st, 2024
  * Ukrainian military intelligence claims attack on website of
    Russia's ruling partyApril 29th, 2024
  * Digital rights watchdogs warn against internet shutdowns in Togo
    ahead of electionsApril 25th, 2024

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