The Mossos d'Esquadra, in collaboration with the National Police, have arrested two brothers aged 24 and 27 in Lloret de Mar for defrauding 2.5 million euros posing as real estate investment experts and potential buyers of cryptocurrencies and items of luxury.
Specifically, five scams are attributed to them through the method known as 'Rip Deal'. Once the victims are convinced of their alleged professionalism, they exchange money or objects for bills that turned out to be counterfeit. The brothers had a lot of experience in this type of scam, they changed their residence frequently and moved the money or objects they obtained quickly to avoid being incriminated in case of being arrested.
The agents launched an investigation after detecting an increase in complaints of scams through this method in recent months. The investigation led to the same family clan. Investigators located them at a rental address in Lloret de Mar.
Through interpolice coordination mechanisms, they confirmed a sixth scam related to the purchase of cryptocurrencies in the city of Valencia and a joint team with the National Police was consolidated. During the location and arrest device, the agents searched an address in Lloret on April 12.
Both brothers contacted the victims through advertisements, or even through messaging applications. Mainly, they chose people who showed an interest in exchanging cryptocurrencies for currency outside of the conventional circuits, although they could also exchange jewelry, luxury items or cash.
Once the best business option was chosen, they were interested in making large investments. Those investigated posed as successful businessmen and did not hesitate to wear expensive clothes, luxury items or stay in expensive hotels, paying for the first lunches that serve to make the first contacts, to impress the victims and deceive them
Before closing the purchase or investment deal, they offered the victims the possibility of making an exchange, whether it was currency for cash (large face value bills for smaller bills), cryptocurrencies, or other objects. To increase the alleged profit in the victims' business, they also offered them up to 20% commission for the operation.
The key moment of the scam was the exchange of money. Typically, the scammers would call a meeting in a hotel room or business center, where the money, cryptocurrency, or whatever they claimed had to be exchanged. At some point during the meeting, once the cash was counted, it is where the real bills were exchanged for the photocopies that the victims ended up receiving.
