The detainee acted in Torrejón de Ardoz impersonating identities to hire products from the different operators, and then resell the devices.
Increasingly the techniques used by cybercriminals are more sophisticated, although in reality this is not the case of the detainee brought to justice by the National Police in Torrejón de Ardoz, and who was engaged in impersonating the identity of all kinds of peopleeven deceased, to get fraudulent contracts and devices with the different telecommunications operators.
The media commented on-line murcia.com following a press release from the National Police itself, which confirmed the arrest of the suspect after an arduous investigation, launched in August 2021 when detected a lot of deliveries of mobile terminals both in Torrejón de Ardoz and its surroundingsall of them fraudulent and responding to the same identity theft pattern.
The thief pretended to be other people to obtain devices and resell them.
The modus operandi not that it was too far-fetched, nor did the suspect use very advanced techniques to commit his frauds with the different operators, since apparently he limited himself to using editing tools on his PC in order to falsify images and documentation to formalize portability and contracts with which to get smartphones and other devices at subsidized prices and therefore cheaper.
There was in fact no impersonation profile defined, since the offender varied according to availability of data and detailssupplanting all kinds of people and even posing as dead people.
The detainee used up to 13 false identities, impossible delivery addresses and the good faith of delivery men and operators to obtain high-end terminals in installments that were never going to be paid for, and which were then resold on second-hand platforms and Internet forums.
More information at Policia.es
Apparently, and always according to the police investigators, the detainee knew perfectly well the operation of the mobile phone companieswhich is why he always made his contracts through the Internet or telephone calls, thus facilitating impersonation, and indicating to the operator any uninhabited place or place where delivery was impossible, as the delivery address for the devices, which forced the delivery man to contact him to deliver packages directly to different locations.
Obviously, the cybercriminal took advantage of the good faith of the delivery men, who they do not usually verify the identity of the recipient for the delivery of the packages, trusting that the contact telephone number would take them to the correct person.
Arrested a cybercriminal who was dedicated to defrauding companies of impersonating identities
He worked in the area of #TorrejondeArdoz and surroundings
The scam amounts to more than 150,000 euroshttps://t.co/PuVGYGKv4d
— National Police (@police) August 30, 2022
As for the operation, it has transpired that the detainee used no less than 13 different identities to carry out portability and contracts always rigging the purchase of cutting terminals premium with installment paymentdevices that would each exceed 1,000 euros on the market and that later were resold on second-hand platforms and different forums on-line.
The lines and the terminals, as you will expect, they were always unpaid as there are neither bank accounts nor, in many cases, the contracting persons, so the operator was left with no money, no device and no one to complain to besides the Police.
In the press release it is specified that they found Falsified DNIs, bank account statements and false documents from the Tax Agencysometimes rudimentarily retouched with photo editing applications.
You see, sometimes you don’t have to be a genius to ‘hack’ the system, although normally the bad guys end up behind bars… Don’t even think about doing it yourself!