Busted for swindling €750,000 from woman

NATIONAL POLICE in Malaga and Sevilla have detained five people for swindling €750,000 out of one person under the guise of collecting for aid for Syria.

The leader of the gang passed himself off as a high ranking minister from an oriental country and they would send their victim well-forged, official looking emails to trick her into believing them.

The detained are all aged between 29 and 50 and all stand accused of belonging to a criminal organisation and swindling.

Investigations began when a woman went into the police station in Marbella to make a formal complaint that she had been the victim of con artists.

Police investigations revealed the methods used by the gang which, through technological manipulations with emails and their social media profiles, had made the woman believe that the head of the gang was the Prime Minister of an Eastern country.

The leader then convinced the woman that if she gave €750,000 in aid to Syria his government would compensate her with €1.5 million, but that it all had to happen secretly so as not to make a political storm between his country and its neigh-bours.

At first the woman was sceptical but the leader managed to convince her through a series of video chats and emails.

As soon as the woman had made the deposit the gang started to avoid her calls and emails and this is when she suspected that something was not right and went to the police.

At the time of their detention two of the suspects were picking up €220,000 from a bank in Marbella and had in their possession a letter from the supposed Prime Minister to the woman thanking her for her support in the matter.