Ten arrested in Girona for defrauding families by pretending to be "a son in trouble"

The scam known as the

son in distress

which

It consists of criminals posing as the children of the victims to ask them for money for some setback, always through

, it is fashionable and booming.

The latest arrests have been made by the National Police in Girona this week, a total of ten arrested of various nationalities in various towns in Girona who demanded a maximum of 3,000 euros from their victims.

Investigators have found dozens of victims of this organization throughout the state, but they assure that, in general, there are hundreds of those affected by criminal organizations that are currently engaged in this growing type of scam.

The investigation began at the end of last year, after police stations throughout the national territory, such as those in Murcia, Valladolid or Toledo, began to receive complaints in which those affected described having suffered the scam of the son in distress.

The criminals' modus operandi consists of sending massive messages to the mobile phones of possible victims.

In these messages, the scammer pretends to be the son of the recipient (victim), tells him that his phone has broken and asks if he can write to that other phone number from which he is contacting, that, it is actually a fraudulent number used by the organization.

The scammers who pretend to be the son always tell the victim that she can't talk on the phone, so she can only answer by phone.

.

If the father or mother contacted through a phone call, the scam would be revealed.

Once the victim answers, supposedly to his son, he requests various amounts of money using a variety of excuses to pay off the debt, or because his computer or mobile has broken and he must buy another, or any other that requires a shipment fast money by transfer.

It coincides that all the requests add up to between 2,500 and 3,000 euros in the end.

The money is always requested through installment payments in order to avoid raising suspicions.

After several efforts, the officers of the police stations that received the complaints were able to see the trace of the money sent by the victims, which was distributed through different bank accounts in order to eliminate the trace of the money and not be identified.

This is how they found out that at least a dozen of the members of the plot were in the province of Girona.

The investigation carried out by agents of the Judicial Police brigades of Girona and Lloret de Mar managed to locate and arrest ten members of the criminal organization as alleged perpetrators of fraud, in Lloret, Blanes, Tossa de Mar and Girona, among other locations.

They are seven men and three women, mostly between 20 and 30 years of age, and of various nationalities, Spanish, Romanian, Brazilian and Sub-Saharan nationalized Spanish.

Among the detainees is the

of the organization in the area, the one in charge of recruiting young people to carry out the scams or also to act as

that is, receiving the scammed money from the victims in exchange for a financial compensation from the organization, and in this way, make it difficult to trace the money and the identity of the fraudsters.

There are different levels of mule, the lowest are used to paying about 50 euros just to receive the money in their account, and others of a higher level can charge 10% of what they manage to get in cash from the victim.

The detainees will shortly be made available to each of the courts investigating the cases.

The investigation is still open and the Police are not ruling out new arrests in the near future.

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