A person investigated for scamming more than 19,500 euros using the “CEO fraud” method in Lanzarote

A cybercriminal impersonated the CEO of a company on the island by using corporate email

April 1 2023 (09:14 WEST)
Updated in April 1 2023 (09:14 WEST)
Puerto del Carmen Civil Guard Barracks (Photos: José Luis Carrasco)
Puerto del Carmen Civil Guard Barracks (Photos: José Luis Carrasco)

The Civil Guard of Lanzarote, within the tasks entrusted to fight against Internet scams, clarified a crime of fraud, in which unknown perpetrators managed to make several bank transfers worth a total of 19,670.99 euros to the detriment of a company on the island of Lanzarote.

The investigation began with a complaint filed in December 2022 at the Tías Main Post, in which the complainant reported that unknown persons had accessed the company's corporate email, managing to intercept information on payment to its suppliers.

Once the perpetrators obtained confidential information from the company and after impersonating the CEO of the company, they ordered the person responsible for administration to make several bank transfers to an external account, which was managed directly by the cybercriminals.

Therefore, the specialized unit in technological crime of the Civil Guard of Lanzarote, collected all the data on the events that occurred and carried out the appropriate police investigations, identifying the main perpetrator of the event, being a citizen residing in the Community of Madrid.

For the location of the perpetrator of this criminal act, the collaboration of Units of the Civil Guard of Madrid was necessary, where its logistics center was located. In this type of attack, cybercriminals focus on any employee of a company, especially those who have access to its economic and financial resources. In general, anyone who is authorized to issue payments by transfer on behalf of the company or has the necessary information to make them.

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