National Police agents have arrested a Ukrainian citizen claimed by the United States for more than a decade for computer fraud upon arrival at Barcelona-El Prat airport on a flight from Tenerife.
He had an Interpol Red Notice in force when he was on the run from the United States authorities, who are suing him for a computer fraud that caused 70 million dollars in losses to its victims around the world through malicious software in the form of antivirus that was supposedly created by the fugitive.
Last Tuesday he was located and detained at the Barcelona airport when the agents learned of his arrival to visit Barcelona, and the following day, the Central Investigating Court 6 of the National Court, acting as a guard, ordered his admission. in pretrial detention while extradition to the US is processed.
The events with which he is charged occurred between 2006 and 2011 when the detainee, along with others implicated, committed an alleged large-scale fraud against consumers by creating and distributing malicious software known as "scareware."
Through this computer code, and with the help of a sophisticated international network of computer servers, it infected the victims' computers and caused pop-up messages to appear on their screens, warning that the terminals were infected with a virus and that they should purchase software. antivirus for a solution.
Victims would pay up to $129 to obtain fake security programs, unaware that they were giving the money to whoever had initially infected their computer.
The fugitive crimes affected hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide and caused more than $70 million in consumer losses.
Investigators from the General Information Police Station have participated in this operation in coordination with the Provincial Information Brigades of Tenerife and Barcelona and with the El Prat Airport Police Station. Internationally, it has had the support of the FBI and Interpol.
