Spanish-based cyber-swindlers defraud Australian woman

NATIONAL POLICE officers in Spain have made five arrests, after an Australian woman alleged that a group of criminals had defrauded her of more than €100,000, reports from February 4 confirm. 

In 2013 the woman started a long-distance relationship with a man she only ever met up with online. Known only as ‘Robin’, the man stayed in close contact with his intended victim for a year, gaining her trust before making, via a third party, a series of financial demands.   

In November 2014, a so-called ‘friend’ of Robin contacted the kind-hearted woman to say that her cyber-lover had been involved in a serious accident in Madrid, and urgently needed €5,000 to cover his hospital bills from the Clinica Universidad de Navarra Hospital, in Pamplona. 

Aware that her boyfriend had no health insurance, the gullible victim duly transferred the money, before receiving a slew of further requests for funds to cover additional costs accrued during hospital trips.

After receiving thousands of pounds destined for the injured cyber partner, the resourceful scamsters proceeded to inform their victim that her lover had died, before requesting an additional bank transfer to cover the costs of repatriating his body to Australia. 

Once again, the woman obliged, before deciding to travel to Spain to investigate the peculiar claims. However, on arriving in Pamplona, and visiting the Navarra hospital, she was unable to find any record of Robin, or his sorry demise at the hospital. 

In July 2015, the victim registered an official complaint with the Spanish police, who have since detained and charged four Nigerians and one British passport holder, in connection with the fraud.   

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