Police arrest a man for around fifty fake rental scams in Barcelona.

BarcelonaHe claimed he wasn't in Barcelona so he wouldn't have to show the apartments he was offering on websites specializing in home searches, but in reality, he couldn't show them: the properties were fake, or if they existed, they were already rented, and he had no connection to them. He wasn't the owner, nor was he an authorized intermediary. The excuse he gave the victims for not letting them visit the property was that he worked abroad and that, if they didn't make a decision quickly, they would lose him; he was in high demand. And the victims believed him: how could someone so polite and who treated them so kindly really only intend to take advantage of their desperation?

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) arrested a man in Barcelona on May 7 for defrauding three people with housing problems by renting fake apartments, although the police estimate the number of those affected could rise to fifty. The investigation began following a complaint from a victim who lost nearly 12,500 euros, and was soon followed by two other complaints for transfers worth 2,000 euros.

Investigators followed the trail of the defrauded money to identify the fraudster, who turned out to be a 30-year-old man with eight police records for theft and fraud. His modus operandi It didn't change: he published fraudulent advertisements on specialized websites for apartments that didn't exist or weren't available for rent, and to which he had no rights. He then pretended to be a foreigner or said he wasn't in the country for work to avoid showing the apartment to interested parties.

Transferred bank accounts

To top it all off, the man pressured the victims with the excuse of high demand and limited housing supply in the capital, forcing them to formalize the reservation, either with advance payments of deposit, monthly rent, insurance, or administrative fees, without ever letting them see the apartment. And to receive the money from these fraudulent rentals without leaving any trace of his criminal activity, the suspect never provided bank accounts in his own name, but instead used those of third parties with limited financial resources.

The man frequented establishments in the Raval and Born areas where he gained the trust of people in vulnerable situations. He presented himself as someone with money and invited them to drinks or meals. He then asked them to temporarily use their bank account to receive a transfer and offered financial compensation in return. Once the money was in the account, the suspect requested that it be withdrawn in cash to avoid leaving a direct trace of the transfers.

Catalan police identified the scammer and arrested him in an apartment in the Eixample district. Four days after his arrest, he was brought before a judge.