Two men and two women, between 19 and 25 years old, have been arrested in Benidorm (Alicante) for allegedly using a well-known platform dedicated to the real estate sector to commit scams through rental scams, and among whose victims are individuals from Madrid and the Canary Islands.
The operation began following a complaint from a woman who explained that she had contacted the platform for a rental property offered by a man, to whom, following his instructions, she made two transfers of 500 euros to a bank account linked to a woman residing in Benidorm, one as a deposit and the other for the price of the first month, but shortly after she realized that she had been deceived.
When the holder of this bank account was questioned, she explained to the agents that she received the money to do a "favor" for a friend, who claimed to have his accounts blocked and needed the money to be withdrawn in cash.
The National Police discovered that the same woman was related to other fraudulent transfers with similar characteristics, which totaled more than 6,400 euros, and four victims were detected from towns in the Canary Islands and Madrid.
The investigation revealed that both the creator of the advertisements and the holder of this account were acting in collusion and transfers were detected to other people who were also linked to the criminal group.
The leader of the network recruited his victims through internet advertisements and three people who carried out money transfer and withdrawal tasks, the latter being known in police jargon as "financial mules".
The arrests were carried out in Benidorm and it was found that, except for one, all had police records for different events, in a case that is being handled by a court in the town.
