For Alejandro P. B., 24 years old, the year 2020 started very badly. That New Year's Eve, this Zaragoza, who is trying to make a career in the world of football, found out through Instagram that a criminal was using his personal data to commit small scams on the Internet. Although he reported it the next day, since then he has received about fifteen complaints all over Spain. A situation that has taken a toll on him financially and personally, as well as costing him some run-ins with the security forces.
The last of these episodes took place on January 29. During the morning of Saint Valeri's day, a public holiday in the Aragonese capital, the National Police showed up at a well-known downtown hotel where the young man was spending the night with a friend. The reason? That, when he registered with his DNI, it was detected that he had a summons and search warrant issued in September 2022 by a Seville court for a complaint filed two years ago.
"I was shocked", explains Alejandro on a terrace. On the way to the police station, he asked the officers if they did not know that he lived in Zaragoza, where he has been registered almost all his life, and that he has never hid, but they told him that they were only following orders. He was signed, photographed and fingerprinted. He then entered the dungeon until, in the morning, he was brought to court. Once with his lawyer present, everything was clarified and the judge set him free, but no one can take away from him the bad time he had.
Alejandro, Álex, does not know how or when his identity was usurped, although he suspects it could have been through a fraudulent mobile application. What he does know is that his "double" began to massively advertise the sale of pets on different internet pages and to provide a contact telephone number whose line he had contracted with the stolen personal data. After contacting potential customers, the scammer would tell them how to make the deposit - always less than 400 euros so that it was a minor crime - before receiving the animal. Once with the money in hand, you've seen enough of me.
In this time, the young footballer has received complaints from Salamanca, Valladolid, Llíria, Sagunto and Mislata (Horta Sud), Pravia (Astúria), Ibi (Alcoià), Lora del Río (Seville) or Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid). others. Every time a summons arrives, he must contact the security force that picked him up and tell them that it is an identity theft and that he is another victim. He also tries to file the case before it goes to court to avoid having to appear with a lawyer, attorney and power of attorney, with all the expenses that this entails.
"They haven't made it easy for us", emphasizes his father, Fernando. On one of those occasions he had to travel to Villablino (Leon), where he experienced another unpleasant episode when he was arrested by the Civil Guard when he was leaving the hotel to go to court (they were looking for him for a statement in Barcelona in which he was quoted and had not appeared). "I had to accompany them to the barracks and wait for them to verify my version to be free," he explains.
In all this time, Álex claims to have spent thousands of euros on his legal defense and travel. But the damage goes beyond the wallet. He had to skip training to be able to testify. He has also turned down some offers to play abroad in case he had to return to appear before the courts. Looking ahead, he suffers from this mess affecting his plans to take national police or firefighter exams.
His lawyer, Alberto Delgado, has tried to consolidate all the cases under the same procedure, but some courts involved have refused. On the phone, he complains that his client's problems reveal two issues: that the legal system is not designed for this type of case, where clients like his suffer "great helplessness"; and that there should be greater coordination between the archives of the different bodies and security forces of the State. "Regulatory change and the coordination of police files is essential for proper treatment", he underlines.
For now, the only thing that seems to have had a certain effect is the complaint that they filed in 2021 against the alleged usurper, who is being sought and captured. Since then, coincidence or not, the flood of complaints slowed down, although this is no guarantee that he will not receive more, as happened in January. "Despite everything, I'm a little calmer now. At least until the next one arrives", concludes Álex.
