Police recover 230,000 euros scammed from an estate agency in the south of Tenerife

The Guardia Civil has managed to recover 237,000 euros that scammers swindled from an estate agency based in San Miguel de Abona, in the south of Tenerife, using the method known as BEC (Business Email Compromise).

BEC is when criminals send an email that appears to have come from a known source making a legitimate request, for example, a supplier your company regularly deals with sends an invoice with an updated email address, and attempts to trick you into transferring funds to them, or revealing sensitive information.

Another way is the scammers pose as the bank and claim that you are the target of a scam, and tell you to install an app to safeguard your account. With this, they can then see all your account movements and ghost the bank's telephone number, so when you question their identity they can back it up by quoting your balance, details, and personal information.

When they then tell you to move your money to a different account to protect it, you have in fact sent it to the scammers themselves.

In this case, thanks to the fast actions of the Guardia Civil and the department of the Prosecutor's Office specialized in technological crimes, the recuperation of all the money stolen from the estate agents was achieved.

In this case, this was possible once the judicial authority ratified the police request to block the recipient’s account which had the stolen money in it, before the criminals made use of it or transferred it somewhere else.

The police press release also confirms that the perpetrators of the scam have not been identified or located, and the investigation to find them remains open.