Two individuals, aged 39 and 44, have been arrested by the National Police in Alicante and Madrid on suspicion of committing five counts of fraud. Utilising a technique called “seeding,” they targeted elderly individuals by offering to assist them with banking transactions and subsequently switching their cards after observing them input their PIN at ATMs.
An off-duty police officer observed a woman arguing with a man who had purportedly attempted to rob her in the vicinity of a bank branch in the town of Alicante. These events sparked the current investigation.
The man fled the scene as the officers approached, but he was promptly apprehended by a nearby patrol vehicle. Upon being apprehended, the officers discovered ten bank cards belonging to various individuals during a search.
The woman reported that the aforementioned man approached her while she was conducting a transaction at an ATM. He pretended to assist her and, upon observing her PIN code, attempted to steal her card. However, she was able to recognise him and retrieve it before he fled the scene.
This individual was apprehended for their purported involvement in a fraud, which prompted an investigation into a travelling criminal network that specialised in defrauding elderly individuals at ATMs through the “seeding” method, as evidenced by the criminal activity. This type of deception entails the perpetrators exploiting the victim’s momentary inattention to obtain their bank card and PIN.
They performed at five additional venues
The agents verified that a significant number of the seized cards had been stolen from third parties at ATMs and had subsequently been the victims of fraudulent transactions in their bank accounts after examining the cards.
The victims all reported that a man would approach them while they were using their cards at the ATM, offering assistance. Subsequently, he would remove the card without the victim’s knowledge, replacing it with another card that belonged to a previous victim, after observing the ‘pin’ number on the card.
The perpetrator subsequently drew money from a variety of ATMs after obtaining the card’s PIN. At this juncture, the victims began to observe unauthorised transactions on their accounts and realised that they had been defrauded.
The officers identified an additional individual who was directly involved in the events under investigation as they continued their investigation. He collaborated with the detainee and was accountable for transporting him to the crime site in his vehicle. He remained at the location until the detainee’s return, allowing them to depart promptly. His location and apprehension in Madrid were determined subsequent to additional enquiries.
Five fraud crimes committed at ATMs in the cities of Alicante, Hellín (Albacete), and the Madrid municipalities of Aranjuez, Torrejón de la Calzada, and the Vicálvaro district have been resolved by investigators as a result of these arrests.
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