The Civil Guard of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has dismantled a criminal group after the arrest of two people, both residents of Tenerife, for committing home rental scams over the internet. In addition, it has investigated three other people for their participation in the commission of the crimes, being the recipients of the money swindled through their checking accounts, for which they are accused of one crime of belonging to a criminal group and another of continued fraud. .
The investigation began at the end of 2022, when the agents became aware of a series of complaints filed in various parts of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and all of them related to alleged fraudulent housing rentals, as reported by the Civil Guard.
During the investigation, it was learned that the alleged perpetrators of the events located housing rental applicants through internet portals, offering them attractive apartments at a price well below compared to the market.
Furthermore, in all cases the injured parties had made bank transfers as a reservation and deposit, as well as other supposed fictitious management expenses. In this way, once the deposits were made, those investigated interrupted all communication with the victims.
In order to give credibility to the scam, the authors sent photographs of supposed homes with “very attractive” habitability characteristics, which, added to the reduced offer price, allowed them to force the victims to make a reservation hastily. , even making payments of several months of deposit without even having visited the supposed properties, which did not exist.
As for the swindled funds, they reached numerous bank accounts belonging to the members of the criminal group and were later withdrawn in cash at numerous ATMs on the island.
Once the Civil Guard agents had collected all the data, and after a thorough analysis of the information obtained, the full identification of its two main members was achieved, who were located and arrested “immediately.”
Furthermore, thanks to the data provided by the different banking entities, the participation of three other people was detected, who acted as economic mules by being recipients of fraudulent transfers in their bank accounts, so they were investigated. .
The investigation is being carried out by the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 1 of Güímar, with the coordination of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, decreeing the imprisonment of the main perpetrator.
