Costa del Sol criminal network scams prospective long-term tenants by showing tourist rental flats

The criminals' strategy allegedly involved renting holiday flats, mainly in Malaga city centre, for just 24 hours and, during that brief period, showing them to and offering them as long-term lets to dozens of prospective tenants. The victims were charged booking fees and deposits amounting to thousands of euros. On the agreed day for handing over the keys, the group simply failed to turn up.

Preliminary figures suggest around 20 victims and a haul of approximately 150,000 euros. Investigators, however, believe both figures will rise in the coming days as more victims come forward. In fact, the investigation began after the police received a flood of complaints.

So far, ten people have appeared in court: seven have been arrested and three are under investigation for the alleged offences of membership of a criminal organisation, ongoing fraud and money-laundering.

The organisation scoured holiday rental websites and chat groups to book regulated holiday accommodation in the city. They paid for a single night's stay and, once they had the keys in hand, set the scam in motion. Within hours, the property transformed, on paper at least, into a home covered by a fake annual tenancy agreement.

The criminals posted bait adverts on social media and arranged a series of viewings. They even went so far as to show the same flat to several different victims in the space of a single day. Those who fell for the scam paid the deposit straight away, under pressure from the scammers who would say that "there were many interested parties on the waiting list".

The victims made the deposit via bank transfers or Bizum.

In some cases, the scam became clear when the real owner of the rental arrived to collect or return the keys or when the next tourists moved into the flat they had legitimately rented. Meanwhile, the victims were left out on the street, having already moved out, with no way to get their money back.

The police set up surveillance operations on the spot at the very building entrances where they had detected fraud attempts. They intercepted the intermediaries at the very moment they were about to collect deposits from prospective tenants.

According to the investigation, the leadership of this scam in Malaga was based in Thailand. The ringleader, currently under investigation, would post the fraudulent offers on social media, manage initial contact with interested parties through messaging apps and coordinate visit schedules. To protect his anonymity from online tracking, he used a network of international phone lines and shell bank accounts.

At the intermediate level, the organization had an agent on the ground in charge of logistics in the Costa del Sol: he collected the cash, safeguarded and distributed the keys and channeled the funds to Benalmádena.

In this coastal town, another key figure operated, responsible for receiving the defrauded sums for their immediate conversion into cryptocurrencies and virtual wallets, completing the money-laundering process.

At the bottom of the ladder were people who served as the public face of the scam: two of those arrested had the sole purpose of posing as property owners or legitimate intermediaries, confidently showing the properties, signing fictitious contracts and collecting payment in cash or verifying bank transfers. According to police sources, both were fully aware that the flats did not belong to them and of the fraudulent operation in which they were participating.

The team of investigators continue to compare complaints to determine the full extent of a fraud that has once again struck at the most vulnerable: those who urgently need housing.

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