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The High Court in Valladolid in northwest Spain has sentenced the former employee of a telephone company to two years in prison and a 540-euro fine for defrauding customers of a total of 20,053.21 euros by illegally accessing client databases, duplicating SIM cards, and conducting unauthorised banking operations using stolen identities.
The ex-worker performed the illegal actions during the year he spent working at the Phonehouse shop (from February 2020 to March 2021). He would usually select elderly victims with current accounts with Banco Santander. He would then download the bank's application on a mobile phone and enter the details from the victim's ID card.
When the app asked for the password, he would request its recovery, selecting the option that sends an SMS to the victim's mobile phone. The app would only present the last three digits of the phone number, which would help the worker check his company's database for matches. On the occasion that he would find a successful match, he would proceed to make a duplicate of the victim's SIM card.
Sometimes, he would do it in person, at the Phonehouse shop. There, he would take a Vodafone portability card and create an order in the system to carry out the duplicate. Once the process was complete and using one of his own mobile phones with a SIM card registered to a fictitious identity, he would change the ownership of the duplicated SIM, assigning the fake identity to the mobile number he wanted to clone - the one linked to online banking access and whose SIM card he had already inserted into one of his phones.
On other occasions, the duplicate was made by telephone, creating the order, leaving the process pending, following the previous steps, until it was completed by a Vodafone customer service worker who would be unaware of the facts. He made numerous cash withdrawals and purchases with charges to bank accounts not authorised by their holders. In total, the fraud amounted to 20,053.21 euros.
The sentence issued by the Valladolid High Court convicted him of a continuous offence of discovery and disclosure of secret data, as well as of fraud, for impersonating clients and carrying out unauthorised banking operations. From the outset of the proceedings, the defendant admitted the facts and explained the mechanics of the operation, which were documented in the police report and supported by documentary evidence.
In addition, he will also have to pay compensation of 700 euros to the individuals concerned and bear the costs of the proceedings.
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