Pamplona, Feb 4 (EFE).- Attempts at “online” scams through supposed investment platforms are on the rise in Spain, where criminal groups seem to have been primed and, with the claim of high returns, have modernized classic scams such as of the tocomocho or the stamp.
During the second quarter of 2022, there has been a global decrease in “online” fraud attempts of 14% compared to the same period in 2021, but in Spain they have increased by 12%, according to the fraud report from the company TransUnion, which reveals that the most common cases have to do with identity theft to commit a scam.
Brigade Antonio Cruceira, head of the Economic and Technological Crime Team of the Civil Guard of Navarra, which last year received 26 complaints for this reason, explained to EFE that the arrival of cryptocurrencies and CFDs (contracts for difference) has Of course, many users try to get a return on their savings through these investment platforms.
“But we have to be very careful in which platforms we choose to invest our money, because there are many times when they are financial stalls that are created solely and exclusively to keep all our money,” he warns.
THREE SCAMS IN ONE
The scam usually begins when a person, when searching for information on where to invest their money on their mobile, immediately receives advertising from these platforms, which ask for their personal information and contact them through a telephone number that begins with + 44, apparently from the UK.
The fraudulent platform then advises an initial investment of about 250 euros and, to open a user account, asks the victim for personal documents such as a photograph of the ID on both sides, a receipt and sometimes a selfie with a handwritten text in which they are authorized to operate on behalf of the purported investor.
Apparently, that contribution of 250 euros is generating great benefits for investments in products such as gold, silver, oil or cryptocurrencies, and that is when the victim is asked to invest more money. But this is only the first scam.
After two or three months, when the victim wants to recover all or part of their money, the platform informs them that they must first pay taxes or a penalty for permanence. In case that amount is paid, the money never reaches its recipient. Second scam.
After some time, about two months, the criminal group contacted the victim again, posing as a law firm that claims to represent those affected and requests a provision of funds of 4,000 or 5,000 euros to defend the rights of the investor, who this form is ripped off for the third time.
A COMPLICATED INVESTIGATION
Approximately 85% of the victims are men and 15% women. Investment platforms are normally created in Kingstown, the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where the country’s domestic legislation protects the banking sector and does not provide information on financial products. “The denouncer in most cases does not even know where he has come to invest,” says Cruceira.
Once the complaint has been received, the Civil Guard contacts the victim, investigates where these Internet domains were created, checks if there is any warning from the CNMV on that platform, studies comments on specialized pages, bank accounts to which the money has been sent (usually from third countries) and the telephone numbers from which the victim has been called.
But the investigation is complicated. «We live in a globalized world and that has its positive and negative part. The negative is that police and judicial, although giant steps are being taken in this sense, there is not the same agility »as with other crimes, points out the head of the Economic and Technological Crime Team of the Civil Guard of Navarra.
Cruceira acknowledges that in these cases “the victim has a difficult time getting their money back.” The Civil Guard usually recommends to victims that they set up a platform for those affected in Spain, hire a law firm to represent them and file a collective lawsuit in the Central Court of Instruction of the National Court, which “is the one that truly has muscle to prosecute this type of crime outside our borders”, he highlights.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO AVOID SCAMS
The Civil Guard makes a series of recommendations to citizens to avoid being victims of these fraudulent investment platforms, including consulting the official state regulatory bodies (the CNMV in Spain) and Europe, which periodically publish websites that operate with irregularities or without regulation. .
He also advises to look for opinions and reputation of the platform on the internet before making investments, to be wary of recently created web pages, to review the web page, since it often contains spelling errors, to be suspicious of high-yield offers and never to invest in Pages that have their registered office in tax havens.
All these recommendations can be summed up in one: have common sense. “If in your analog life someone stops you on the street and asks for your personal documents, you don’t give them, and in digital life it should be the same,” concludes Cruceira.
Javier Rodrigo