Spain’s Policia Nacional and the US Secret Service have dismantled a Madrid-based international cybercrime gang that stole millions of dollars from US citizens and companies.
The cybercrime gang is specialized in online scams, employing social engineering, phishing, and smishing techniques to collect sensitive details from victims and then use that information to commit financial fraud.
Nine members of the group have been arrested – eight in Madrid and one in Miami – after receiving close to €5m ($5.4m) from their victims, which they spent on luxury items including high-end watches costing as much as €200,000 ($215,000) each.
The gang would send phishing emails and texts to individuals and US companies in order to trick them into handing over sensitive personal and financial information. They would follow up with vishing calls to obtain any remaining details needed, masking the origin of the calls.
In some cases, members of the group would host three-way calls in which they spoke simultaneously with victims and their US banks, in order to bypass security checks and access accounts.
The organization maintained over a hundred bank accounts in various Spanish banks, and used them to deposit their criminal proceeds, withdraw cash from ATMs, send it to international accounts, or convert it to cryptocurrency.
Several luxury items were seized which includes watches, 44 mobile phones, four laptops, three desktop computers, three tablets and monitors, bags full of luxury clothing and shoes, documents and bank cards, a compressed air gun, eight false passports and assorted jewelry.
Spanish police have frozen 74 of the bank accounts, and assets of more than €500,000 ($538,000). The total loss to victims is believed to be even higher, at nearly €7m ($7.5m).
According to the Spanish authorities, cybercrime is on the rise in the country, with one in every five crimes now taking place online.
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