The Civil Guard of Vecindario has arrested a person for bank fraud, concealment, disclosure of secrets and usurpation of civil status. The events began as a result of a complaint filed at the Main Post of the Civil Guard, where an elderly woman stated that she had detected a series of unauthorized bank transfers from her current account to a digital banking entity, for an amount that initially exceeded 22,000 euros.
After subsequent inquiries at her usual financial institution, the total amount of the economic damage rose to more than 27,000 euros. The investigation focused on a residence in the town of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, also the victim's place of residence. According to the inquiries made, the criminal modus operandi revealed technical specialization and a deep knowledge of the victim's routines.
The authoring person, taking advantage that they were temporarily living with the victim, a vulnerable person due to their state of health and to the use of anxiolytic medication, accessed the latter's mobile terminal while she slept.
Meticulously, he/she used the victim's fingerprint to bypass the biometric security system and carry out multiple fraudulent transfers through online banking. The investigative Unit of the Civil Guard focused on the analysis of banking movements, following as a key line of investigation the tracking of the digital trail of the transfers, which allowed identifying as the holder of the destination accounts a person close to the victim.
The Civil Guard also states that the detainee had manipulated the victim's phone to delete the notifications and messages from the banking entity, thus preventing the crime from being discovered early. After establishing the technical connection and the material authorship, the agents proceeded to locate and arrest the investigated person in a property in another nearby town.
During the police operation, more than 18,500 euros were seized, distributed in cash found at the scene, and the blocking of balances in two bank accounts. The instructed proceedings have been placed at the disposal of the Investigation Section of the Court of First Instance of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, where the police report has been sent along with the recovered effects.
New crimes
This case highlights the dangerousness of new crimes committed in the digital environment, where the technical specialization of the perpetrator not only resides in computer knowledge, but in the exploitation of physical security systems, such as biometrics, to commit illicit acts. The benefit of trust and the vulnerability of the victim aggravates the consequences of this crime, causing damage that transcends the economic to be situated on the emotional and psychological plane, by producing a traumatic rupture of family protection ties.
At a social level, this type of scam generates deep alarm in the community, especially among the elderly, who are exposed to a lack of protection against technologies that, although designed for their security, are used against them. The work of the Civil Guard in this area not only seeks the restitution of assets, but also to guarantee citizen security against aggressors who operate from the most intimate environment, reinforcing citizens' trust in institutions specialized in the fight against cybercrime and the protection of the most vulnerable.