Massive card-cloning network used lottery website to siphon funds
Tuesday, April 15, 2014 @ 3:54 PM
NATIONAL Police say at least 1,600 people have been caught out by credit-card cloners who topped up their bank accounts using the State lottery website, www.loteriasyapuestos.es.
The accused parties, who hacked into Wi-Fi connections to avoid being traced, would add funds to their own online lottery ticket accounts with sums ranging from 90 to 180 euros, then move these to their bank accounts.
They are said to have driven three lorries with containers filled with top-of-the-range technology equipment worth 26,000 euros, bought with the proceeds of their online fraud, from Fuenlabrada (Madrid) to Lagos in Nigeria, via Amberes in Belgium.
Although the victims are said to be all over the world, a total of 262 of them are in Spain, say investigators.
A police probe began in October when National Police in Toledo received four separate reports of sums being taken from bank accounts using credit or debit cards without authorisation from the account-holder, and added to online 'virtual' lottery funds.
Further inquiries showed that the money was then moved to bank accounts which did not bear the victims' names, before being drawn out in cash.
Three people, including the ringleader, were arrested initially and three homes were raided in the towns of Illescas and Torrijos (Toledo province), from which a large haul of computer equipment and documents connected to the card-cloning exercises were seized.
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