Yeah Only 2.26% of cyber fraud complaints end up in court.Even fewer cases result in a conviction. In fact, this is the first time the prosecution has secured a six-year prison sentence for the man who posed as a woman on dating websites to deceive other men and who obtained nearly €27,000 from six victims. He focused primarily on boys with vulnerable profilesLike Àlex, who had Asperger's syndrome and was nearing thirty when he encountered the con artist in October 2021. After "obsessive and repetitive" intimidation, the pressure "led" him to suicide, as acknowledged in the Barcelona Provincial Court's ruling, which ARA has obtained.

"They were looking for friendship or a relationship, and there was a phase where they were pressured to send money or kept on premium-rate numbers for extended periods, and they suffered anxiety because the person they were involved with was having a very difficult time." This is how one of the researchers summarized the method they followed. The accused of defrauding at least six men by pretending to be a woman on dating apps. "Several of those he lured were vulnerable people or people with disabilities, like Àlex," the police officer added, referring to the young man who ended up committing suicide before the phone bills left his family bankrupt. In fact, one of the six victims listed in the case was accompanied by his guardian at a disability support organization when he reported the scam to the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police). This Friday, the young man attended the second and final day of the trial alone, where he explained that he lost between 600 and 800 euros to this scam, which caused him fear and anxiety. "They called me so many times that I had to stay awake all night. They told me they would come to where I lived, that I would receive large fines," he explained to the court. With some variations in each case, the scam always followed the same pattern: the victims knew a girl On the internet—the user always used the same mobile phone but went by different names—he asked for help to quit working for a webcam sex show company. He instructed them to call premium-rate numbers for as long as possible, even though there was no one on the other end of the line. Then messages arrived from another number. In this case, the caller identified himself as a representative of the sex show company and demanded transfers or more calls to avoid a supposed fine incurred as a result of the calls to the premium-rate number. The accused allegedly obtained almost €27,000 in this way, and the prosecution is seeking a sentence for fraud and extortion that could carry a maximum of 11 years in prison.

She acted like a kind of Tinder scammer, but posed as a woman to deceive men. girl She asked for their help to get out of a webcam sex show company where she was forced to work, and to do so they had to call two premium-rate numbers, which generated bills that in some cases were equivalent to the entire payroll of the victims or their families. The scam continued with messages from a man, who presented himself as the head of the sex show company and demanded more calls to cancel the charges or prevent the line owners—who in some cases were the parents of the victims—from finding out they had fallen for the scam. At least six men made calls or transfers and lost, collectively, almost €27,000. One of them, Àlex, committed suicide before his mother received the bills that left her in debt.

It all started with the announcement of the sale of a car, a Ford Fusion, on the website Milanuncios.comThe seller was a man from Osona, and the vehicle was an old car that cost less than 3,000 euros. It quickly attracted the attention of a buyer, Sergio from Seville. "He said he was a soldier and wanted the car for his daughter," the seller explains. The soldier was in a hurry to buy it. That's why he offered him an advance payment of 300 euros, a sort of guarantee that he would keep. The buyer asked for a photo of his ID because his manager wanted to prepare a reservation contract, and that way he could also begin processing the change of name on the vehicle. "He asked me to take the photo more than once so his face could be clearly seen. I thought it was strange," he says. After sending the photo of his ID, the buyer disappeared. It was the summer of 2021, and he didn't give it any more thought, and years passed. Specifically, it took three years until the Osona salesman received, in 2023, a summons to appear as a suspect in a Coruña court for defrauding a woman of 500 euros. How? With the sale of a vehicle. The Osona man claims that his ID was used to commit this scam, but, for now, the judicial investigation has been successful, to the point that the Prosecutor's Office has requested two and a half years in prison for him. The suspect maintains that he is not the perpetrator of the scam, but another victim. "I am not guilty, I am the victim, and I am caught with nothing. I feel powerless," he says.

He explains that, "from denial," he read the first paragraph of the ARA news about a young man who was emotionally defrauding young women she met through dating apps. Upon rereading, she no longer had any doubt that the physical description, the mannerisms, and the details described fit the man she had considered her partner for months and with whom she shared her home. In fact, while she was reading the website a friend showed her, he was quietly at home, so her main concern was how to get rid of him without confronting him. "I have a psychopath at home and I don't want to see him again," she stated in an interview with ARA. Hours later, taking advantage of the fact that he had gone out to attend "meetings," she changed the lock on the door and blocked him on his phone. For a couple of nights, she slept at friends' houses, always with a certain fear that he would reappear. Now that several months have passed, the woman, calmer now and no longer afraid of being recognized, agrees to let her story be made public, always with the desire to help other women.