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Guardia Civil Identifies Four Suspects in Smishing Bank Scam That Stole More Than €25,000

Tracing of phone communications and money flows to Cádiz reveals how fake SMS and voice‑spoofed calls enabled the large thefts

Overview

  • A woman in Valencia reported unauthorized activity after spotting irregular charges, and investigators found five fraudulent transfers that together exceeded €25,000.
  • The scheme began with a fake SMS that gave a phone number to report a supposed €15,000 operation and led an authorized account holder to call the attackers.
  • Callers posed as the bank’s security team using an official-sounding recording to persuade the victim to hand over online banking credentials.
  • The Guardia Civil’s ON-RED and the Cibercomandancia analyzed communications and the money trail, identified four people living in Cádiz, and sent the case to the provincial court.
  • The Guardia Civil warns customers not to click links in SMS, to enable stronger payment authentication, to block payment methods at first suspicion, and to file complaints quickly through its electronic office.