Overview

• A joint operation by Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, codenamed Albatros-Samba, led to the arrest of five suspects and the investigation of seven more in A Coruña, Cambre, Oleiros and Culleredo.
• Investigators found the ring used phishing, smishing and vishing to steal bank credentials and created virtual copies of cards for online purchases.
• Perpetrators laundered stolen funds by buying large batches of concert tickets and reselling them through social media with payments via Bizum.
• Authorities traced over 60 citizen-filed and 117 bank-reported incidents, determining more than €30,000 was defrauded from 177 customers across multiple Spanish provinces.
• Leaders of the group held prior criminal records and a banking entity’s security team provided key intelligence as the probe remains open to identify further victims.