Spanish police have dismantled an extensive investment fraud ring, which caused total losses exceeding $11.8 million (10 million euros).
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During simultaneous raids in Barcelona, Madrid, Mallorca and Alicante, coordinated by the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Guardia Civil and the National Police, 21 people.
In addition to the arrests, police seized seven luxury vehicles and more than $1.5 million (€1.3 million) in cash and cryptocurrencies. The perpetrators appear to have started operating the scheme in 2022, and since then authorities have received over three hundred complaints from victims across the country.
Their modus operandi resembles “ romance baiting ” or “ pig butchering ” scams , in which scammers approach individuals through social media advertisements , misusing recognizable brands and using fake testimonials.
They then directed victims to fictitious online investment platforms in cryptocurrencies, forex, technology stocks, or gold, which displayed virtual profits on dashboards and allowed small withdrawals at first.
Once victims make larger investments, withdrawals are blocked and the scammers charge them alleged “clearance fees” or “processing fees” if they wish to recover their money — all with the aim of extracting even more money from them.
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In organized scams, such as the one dismantled by Spanish police, perpetrators use call centers that mimic professional investment firms, with operators trained in persuasion scenarios and psychological manipulation techniques.
According to police, the Barcelona-based call centers were rented for a period of three to four months to make them difficult to track down, and had a “panic button” that automatically shut down all systems in the event of a police raid. The existence of such call centers in Spain is considered unusual, as they usually operate in Asian or Eastern European countries, where it is easier to evade law enforcement.
Last week, authorities in Spain dismantled an even larger cryptocurrency, which had laundered over $540 million (460 million euros), extorting money from 5,000 victims around the world.
In April 2025, Spanish police arrested six people who were using artificial intelligence to create investment scams, defrauding more than 200 victims and extorting a total of 19 million euros ($20.9 million).
See also: US: Charges against 12 people for crypto fraud
A significant element emerging from the above cases is the increasing use of technology – and in particular artificial intelligence – by criminal organizations to carry out sophisticated financial frauds. Fraudsters are no longer limited to traditional methods of deception, but are also leveraging advanced digital tools, such as deepfakes, automated advertising systems and platforms that simulate real investment websites.
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Source: bleepingcomputer
