Simon Hunter
THE CIVIL GUARD has busted a gang who was using stolen ID cards to fraudulently apply for credit, racking up €1 million of ill-gotten gains in the process.
A total of 13 suspects were detained, on suspicion of committing more than 600 offences.
In a statement, the Civil Guard revealed that there were at least 209 victims of the scam distributed around Spain.
They will now face charges of fraud, falsifying documents, identity theft and belonging to a criminal gang, among others.
The network came to light after the authorities detected a high number of police reports where victims had all suffered the same modus operandi.
The criminals would first obtain a photo of their targets’ DNI identity cards, before buying products on the internet via financing in their names.
Then, once they received the goods they would resell them via online second-hand sales pages.
The gang was also faking payslips and other documents required to open bank accounts and to contract phone lines.
They changed residence constantly, were sending money abroad, and used as many as 700 different phone lines to communicate and carry out their crimes.
Civil Guard raids seized documents that were used to commit the frauds, as well as goods that they had purchased. Ten kilos of marijuana were also found, as well as cocaine and precision scales.
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