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National Police officers have smashed a gang that operated throughout Spain and used artificial intelligence to scam companies and then launder the money. The criminal organisation scammed its victims using the method known as 'the man in the middle', which involves intercepting communication between a sender and a receiver and modifying information to commit fraud.
In this case, the network selected major companies and intercepted their emails so that when they detected a payment was about to be made, they would modify the account number of the beneficiary of the transfer, according to investigators.
Police arrested eight people who acted as "bank mules" in Estepona, Madrid, Seville, Murcia, Las Palmas and Cartagena. Officers also raided eight properties and seized computer material.
The police investigation started after a complaint was filed in December last year at a National Police station in Huesca by a business owner. He complained that, days after having sent an email to his tax advisor for payment to a supplier of more than 170,000 euros, he had noticed it had not reached its addressee. On inquiring, the business owner realised the tax advisor had received the same email, but with a modification of the invoice in the part corresponding to the transfer number.
The investigation established that behind the scam was a criminal organisation with a well thought-out economic structure to launder the fraudulently obtained money.
The organisation had set up a network of mules and bank accounts in such a way that, when the victim was scammed and the money was sent into the criminals' account, it was then quickly transferred through a network of bank accounts and withdrawn at ATM cash machines located in France.
This network of bank mules was distributed throughout Spain, according to investigators. The organisation paid them the amount of 150 euros for each online bank account they opened in their name and, once active, they gave the access codes to the organisation, police said.
To open these online accounts, the mules would conduct a video-verification with the bank to check against the identity documents provided. Generally, the mules used their own identity documents, although investigators also detected that the network had used artificial intelligence to be able to alter identity documents, keeping the mule's photograph, but using the personal data of third parties.
Once the accounts were opened, the gang requested the issuance of several bank cards that were sent to different postal addresses of houses in construction sites where the owners did not reside, but which had an accessible mailbox, from where members of the criminal group took the letters from the bank.
The bank cards were then sent to France, where the organisation had members dedicated to withdrawing the money from ATMs located in the outskirts of Paris. The police investigation is still ongoing.
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