Six people arrested for cheating 19 million to more than 200 victims through artificial intelligence | Spain

Up to 208 people have been victims of a scam as persevering as it is perversely urred. Three phases had this deception and the scammed knew that they had been fooled after the first. Even so, the criminals had designed two more stages that made the deceived not to continue biting a hook that consisted of continuing to pay a little more to recover the lost money. Nobody recovered anything, but those who continued until the end lost money three times. The Civil Guard and the National Police have arrested six people as responsible for a criminal organization that has scammed 19 million euros to those two hundred people with the promise of Safe investments in cryptocurrencies. The security forces have recovered 100,000 euros for now, 0.5% of the scammed.

The first news of the scam came to researchers just over two years ago, when a man resident in Granada denounced that he had been scammed 624,000 euros. Then begins an investigation that leads to the province of Alicante as a place of operations of the malefactors, to several villages of Granada as a place of residence of some of the deceived and discover a scam that includes the simulation of emotional relationships with the chefered In the purest style of Brad Pitt’s scam and the use of personalized marketing and advertising techniques thanks to the use of artificial intelligence (AI). A wired and designed scam to the millimeter that has led, for example, to the Band of the Band has used up to 50 different identities, as reported by the Civil Guard and the National Police in a statement.

The first phase was a mixture of classic fraud perfected with the use of AI. The criminals, between 34 and 57, inserted Cryptocurrency investment ads On web pages. The algorithms allowed them, according to the researchers, selecting people whose profile fit into what the malefactors were looking for. From there, with the victims already selected, the cybercounts inserted advertising campaigns on the web pages or social networks that those used more frequently and offered them investments in cryptocurrencies with high profitability and no possibility of patrimonial loss. These phase enter those false ads of celebrities that flood the networks announcing all kinds of things. Thanks to the AI, the scammers published on those websites and social networks false advertising in which those celebrities advised investing money with this company, giving a false image of security to the investment.

The first investment was always accompanied by a glittering and quick return of money. It was the only time, from there, he was encouraged to continue investing and when investors requested the reimbursement, he never arrived. At that time, the scammed were already beginning to realize what was happening.

However, the mechanism was still underway. According to the researchers, after a while, the cybercounts activated the second phase: they contacted the victims again and, after telling them that the money was blocked, they assured them that it was possible to recover it. Of course, a new contribution was necessary to recover it. The victims, hoping to finally recover their money, made a new entry without realizing that they had been scammed again.

The deception had a stage even more: who had denounced the events before the National Police or the Civil Guard expected to receive favorable news from the recovery of their money. And, indeed, they received a communication from agents from Europol or lawyers from the United Kingdom, which turned out to be false agents and lawyers. These informed them that their money was identified and located, but, of course, they needed the payment of the taxes corresponding to the country where it was blocked. Once again, many of the scams agreed to the payment of these alleged taxes. The money invested, the one requested to unlock the lost and the payment of taxes necessary to recover everything were lost, three payments for nothing.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Interior, the police operation has been very complex, both for the financial, technological and advertising structure of the criminal group and for the amount of information to be analyzed. The criminal network had created a large number of companies throughout the national territory through which they channeled money from scams. In addition, the members of the organization used multiple false identities, such as the case of half a hundred used by the head of the plot. The arrests were made in the towns of Alicante, Torrevieja, Santa Pola and Villajoyosa. Everyone is charged with fraud crimes, Lighting of capital and documentary falsehood in criminal organization. The leader is in provisional prison and agents have identified network ramifications in other countries, so the investigation remains open.