Alex Trelinski
A 22-year-old man has been arrested in Elche for using fraudulently obtained credit card numbers to rack up €7,000 in charges at a local brothel and hotel.
Police in Benidorm received three complaints in a short space of time from people who noticed various charges had been made on their credit cards without authorisation.
The man contacted the victims by phone and managed to gain their trust to the extent that they gave him all their card details.
It’s believed the fraud was linked to online purchases.
He then used the information to input payment details into card dataphones in an Elche brothel and a hotel.
The fraudster tricked the employees by saying his card did not work but he could make the payment manually by entering the required 16 digits into the card machine.
Police quickly discovered where the stolen numbers were used before identifying and detaining the illegal user.
The Policia Nacional have warned bank and credit card holders to avoid giving out details on the phone to unverified callers.
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