A recent police operation concerning a camper-van scam resulted in the recovery of five such vehicles and ten arrests.
These stolen vehicles, which are valued together at 160,000 euros, were used as bait in a fraudulent, vehicle-sale scheme. In fact, the sum of money obtained from the fraud totalled 171,547 euros.
The Guardia Civil police operation BENIMARY also blocked 22 bank accounts, seven of which were used to receive payments from sales.
The fraud came to light when the police gained knowledge of five camper-van sales in the province of Lugo (Galicia) where the buyers had denounced that they had been the victims of fraud.
The gang put adverts on web pages dedicated to the sale and purchase of vehicles, announcing camper vans for sale. When an interested party got in contact using the details given, they were asked to make a down payment to one of those above-mentioned accounts. Once the money was paid over, they never heard anything more from the sellers.
So, where did the gang get the camper vans in the first place? By renting them from rental companies. Once they had the vehicles in their possession, they then put them up for sale via internet, as explained before.
The fraudsters hid their identities behind non-existent (fictitious) companies or by using the identity of people that had nothing to do with the scheme, without their knowledge. Furthermore, the contact telephone numbers were prepaid ones, again using somebody else’s details to obtain them.
Likewise, the bank accounts were set up online using the fictitious company names. They then withdrew money from the accounts using only bank cards, minutes before midnight and then minutes afterwards to be able to withdraw the maximum amount using two different days’ withdrawal limits. When making these cash withdrawals, they would wear disguises (wigs, glasses, false facial hear, etc.) in order to escape recognition on CCTV.
Finally, the police investigation turned up 21 victims of the vehicle scam and 24 victims of identity theft.
(News: Lugo, Galicia)