National Police agents have dismantled an itinerant criminal group of Italian-Croatian origin allegedly dedicated to committing scams known as Rip Deal.
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Eight people have been arrested and the records have seized 7,121,400 euros in bills with the inscription "FACSIMIL", 23,645 euros in legal tender bills, three money counting machines and several mobile phones.
They went so far as to acquire VTC licenses using this method and attempted to acquire $800,000 worth of crypto assets.
The investigations began in December 2022 after the agents received a complaint in Madrid of a Rip Deal scam worth 70,000 euros through the sale of VTC licenses.
The perpetrators of the events showed interest in these licenses but on the day they had to pay the agreed amount, they managed to deceive the victims so that they would exchange the money for lower value bills, in order to be able to deposit them in the ATM and make a bank transfer.
Thus, the perpetrators managed to get hold of a booty of 70,000 euros in legal tender notes, while the victims received said amount in 200-euro facsimile notes.
Subsequently, the commission of a new Rip Deal type scam was also denounced in Madrid, this time for a value of 250,000 euros, in the investment of a real estate business.
The victims stated that they intended to participate in a real estate business as investors, for which they needed to have a loan for an amount of 2,000,000 euros.
That is when they contacted the perpetrators of the scam, alleged lenders, through a third party. In order to carry out the loan, they demanded as a condition the exchange of a quantity of money, 250,000 euros, from high-value bills to lower-value bills, and in this way they met in Madrid and the authors took 250,000 euros in current bills. law, while the victims received said amount of money in facsimile-type bills.
After investigative efforts in relation to both scams, it was possible to determine that they had allegedly been committed by the same people, who made up a criminal group led by three brothers of Italian-Croatian origin with numerous records for these events, both in Spain and in other countries. European countries.
After analyzing the images of the places where the scams took place, the investigators were able to determine that other members of the group were in charge of providing logistical support as well as security and counter-surveillance in the vicinity where their criminal actions materialized.
Subsequently, the agents learned that the three main investigated were in Valencia planning to commit a new scam. In this case, they had tricked a new victim into making a transfer worth 5,000 euros in cryptocurrencies.
The scammers, posing as investors in a real estate company, were trying to negotiate the purchase of an $800,000 worth of crypto asset wallet, owned by a third party, which the scammers would acquire in exchange for cash.
To carry out the business, the victim, who acted as an intermediary, the scammers, and a third party who represented the owner of the cryptocurrency wallet, went up to a flat rented by the scammers in Valencia, where they intended to carry out the scam.
At one point, the representative of the owner of the purse noticed the deception and fled the place, taking with him one of the scammers' wads of bills.
The detainees reproached the intermediary for this action and demanded payment of said money, initiating the transfer himself. It was then that the operational exploitation of the investigation was decided, proceeding to the arrest of seven people "red-handed" in Valencia.
In the apartment in Valencia, the agents found a total of 1,066,200 euros in 200-euro bills, all of them FACSIMILE, 23,645 euros in legal tender bills, a bill counting machine and several mobile phones.
At the same time, the investigators, who had verified the existence of a storage room that the organization had rented in Madrid, carried out a search in which they found 6,000,000 euros in 200 and 500 euro bills with the inscription "FACSIMIL", two money counting machines and various tools to carry out scams. ■