British company scammed out of thousands by two men on the Costa del Sol

OFFICERS from the National Police have arrested two men in Malaga for allegedly scamming a British company out of thousands by using an online identity theft method.

The detained, aged 54 and 71, allegedly managed to steal money from a British company after illegally accessing email accounts and tampering with financial documents that helped them transfer to themselves a large amount of money.

The investigation was opened after a report was received by the firm claiming to have been scammed of out €67,228.

The modus operandi used by the suspected scammers is known as ‘phishing’, an identity theft method carried out in an attempt to obtain sensitive information such as passwords, credit card or bank information by posing as a trusted individual or entity in an apparent official electronic communication.

In this incident, the alleged conmen created fake email accounts similar to those used by the victim and created an illegal invoice that was transferred to their own account.

After multiple enquiries, investigation officials were able to locate the bank, account number and holders of the suspects’ account in Spain.

The two men were located and arrested for carrying out the alleged crimes of fraud and money laundering.