The Spanish Guardia Civil has arrested five cybercriminals who allegedly defrauded almost 383,000 euros from two companies and a town hall in La Rioja (north) through their computer systems.

The detainees are three men and two women, aged between 22 and 34, from Colombia, Ecuador and Nepal, the Guardia Civil said in a statement on Thursday.

Those involved in these events are said to have intercepted the communications that two La Rioja companies and a municipal government maintained with their customers by email, in the technological scam known as ‘Business E-Mail Compromise’ (BEC).

In this way, they managed to sneak into their computer systems and trick both parties into forwarding payments to their accounts, until they obtained a loot of 382,810 euros.

After numerous operational tasks and information gathering, officers from the Guardia Civil’s technological crimes team managed to identify, locate and arrest those allegedly responsible for these events in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona (northeast).

According to the Guardia Civil, the rapid and effective response of the investigators made it possible to trace the route of the defrauded money, blocking seven bank accounts used by the detainees and recovering almost 250,000 euros.

The investigation began after three complaints were filed by two companies and a Rioja municipal council; The officers handled each complaint individually, but when they discovered common links between the three, they grouped the operation into a macro operation.

The study and analysis of the digital footprint left by the fraudsters allowed the tracking and tracing of the money, the blocking of the seven bank accounts and the identification of the five cybercriminals operating from Catalonia.

Once the houses in which they were hiding were found, they were arrested and made available to the judiciary.

The investigation remains open, so new arrests cannot be ruled out. EFE