The Mossos d'Esquadra arrested a 35-year-old man for crimes of fraud and usurpation of marital status. Specifically, he carried out two types of scam, one in the Sarrià district posing as an investor in luxury animals, and, in parallel, another in l'Eixample, where he continuously rented a home without being the owner. In total, it is estimated that the double deception with two false identities allowed him to benefit from an amount close to 1.2 million euros.
In the case of the scam in the Sarrià neighborhood, it began at the beginning of June 2022 when a man rented an apartment he owned located on Provença Street to a woman. The tenant often met the tenant at the entrance of the property, since he also lived on another floor of the same building, so over time he ended up meeting the lady's partner, who turned out to be the scammer, who was acting under the identity of EAV.
As a result of this friendship, the scammer explained to the owner that he was in the business of buying and selling thoroughbred horses and luxury dogs and that he lived in Miami, and proposed to invest in that business. The proposal consisted of making an investment that would be returned with interest at the end of the current month. The amount they agreed that the victim would invest was 133,180 euros and would have an interest amount of 34,052 euros, and they also agreed that the money would be delivered in cash and that Mr. EAV would return it by bank transfer.
After several phases of the scam in which the victim had to ask for loans and money from family and friends to recover the investment (he even sold an apartment he owned), the money promised by the scammer was never collected.
On the other hand, in the case of the scam in the Eixample district, the Mossos detailed that this is where the detainee committed ten crimes of fraud and one of usurpation of marital status during 2023. The author, who went by the initials JGR, had rented a room in an address located on Mallorca Street. In this way, he placed rental advertisements for the property on an internet real estate portal and when the owner was not at home, since, as the body has explained, he is a person who travels frequently, the detainee showed the apartment in his victims taking advantage of the fact that he had keys. To close the deal as quickly as possible, he demanded payment be made quickly (almost in all cases in cash), and once made, the victims stopped knowing anything about the alleged landlord.
Subsequently, upon going to the home, the victims verified that it was not a property that was rented, since its owner resided, who was a different person than the one with whom they had formalized the false rental. With this methodology he managed to defraud a total of 10 people for a total amount of €63,950.
The man, who was brought to justice on December 1, had 27 police records for crimes of this type. He obtained one of the identities of a co-worker whom he gained trust to the point of giving him a copy of his ID and an account number with the promise of an investment. This victim discovered that she had taken out various loans in his name without authorization.
The other stolen identity was that of a person whose link went back to the time in which they met on a soccer team, one as a youth coach and the detainee as a player.
