EXTREMADURA – The Guardia Civil have arrested 8 people for crimes of fraud and forgery of documents as part of Operation Golden Card. They were arrested in Badajoz, Extremadura for allegedly selling fake driving licenses online.
The investigation began a year and a half ago, coordinated with the Provincial Prosecutor´s Office in Badajoz. During this time, police were able to find out the involvement of a group of fraudsters who created 15 web portals.
Fake websites
They used these websites and social media to offer driving licenses for sale. The cost ranged anywhere between €600 and €19,000. Payments were sent to third party accounts, and then were diverted.
Online loan scheme
The same group also pretended to offer financial services whereby people had to pay an amount of money between €500 and €1,000 to enter the online loan scheme. However, nothing was ever provided, and the money was not returned.
Fake driving licenses
It is estimated that with these scams, over 30 people have been deceived by the criminal group. Of this, 23 were scammed by the fake driving licenses. A further 9 were duped by the online loan scheme. Residents affected were from the provinces of Badajoz, Murcia, Pontevedra, Madrid, Malaga , Alicante, Granada, Segovia, Zamora, Seville, Córdoba, Valencia, Valladolid, Castellón, Albacete and Barcelona.
Convincing scam
Some of those affected told police that they were unaware of the official procedure for obtaining a driving license. Furthermore, they were fully convinced of its legality based on the convincing illustrations and information viewed through the website.
Related post: UK – Spanish driving license exchange
Investigation still open
Guardia Civil in Veldebotoa-Badajoz have kept the investigation open on the chance there have been more victims of this fraud.
Also read: Other convincing scams
