SIM swap fraud in Altea: gang steals 76,620 euros through a hijacked phone number

Your phone suddenly loses service, and days later your account is empty. It happened to a 72 year old woman from Altea: through SIM swap fraud, criminals took over her mobile number and 76,620 euros vanished from her bank account. The Guardia Civil arrested two suspects and is warning everyone in the region about the method. Here is what happened, and how to protect yourself.

What happened in Altea

The victim noticed that 76,620 euros had disappeared from her account in a short space of time. No burglary, no stolen card: the perpetrators had her phone number. The Guardia Civil in Altea opened an investigation under the name operation Joya26 and unpicked, step by step, how the gang operated. The trail did not end on the Costa Blanca, but with suspects in Madrid and Valencia.

How SIM swap fraud works

The trick starts with your identity, not your handset. Using misused personal details, the perpetrators requested, in the woman’s name, a transfer of her number to another provider, followed straight away by a change of ownership. From that moment her text codes landed on their SIM card. With those they opened her online banking and requested three debit cards linked to the account. To the outside world everything looked normal: the payments simply came from her account.

A division of labour like a company

The investigation paints the picture of an organised network with a tight division of roles: the loot was spent through changing identities, phone numbers and delivery addresses. Some 26,200 euros went on a gold watch collected from a jeweller in Alicante, more than 41,000 euros on electronics and games consoles from shops across several provinces, 9,915 euros on an online betting platform and 2,415 euros on five gold coins. The Guardia Civil arrested a 22 year old woman in the Madrid district of Vallecas and a 33 year old man in Picassent near Valencia, for fraud and membership of a criminal organisation. Both have been released while the case proceeds; the file sits with the court in Benidorm.

How to protect yourself

The main warning sign is surprisingly simple: your mobile signal drops for no reason. Does your phone suddenly not work anywhere, while your partner’s is fine? Call your provider straight away and ask whether a switch or a new SIM card has been requested for your number. Check your account balance regularly too, especially if you hold several accounts. And wherever possible, use an authenticator app for logins and banking instead of text codes, because those codes are the first weapon of anyone who hijacks a number.

While you are at it, go through your other accounts as well. A console account, for instance, has a country attached to it that you cannot change afterwards, and that country decides which purchases will work on it. What that means in practice is in our guide to buying GTA 6 on the Costa Blanca.

Something suspicious? Report it like this

Speed matters. When in doubt, block your cards and online banking through your bank first, then report it to the Guardia Civil: via the emergency number 062, the AlertCops app or the station in your town. Always file a report, even if the amount seems small: individual reports are what bring networks like this to light. The Altea case shows that investigators follow such trails seriously, all the way to Madrid and Valencia.

About the authorLeonie

Leonie lives on the Costa Blanca. She writes about daily life on the coast: the markets, the walks and everything you only discover once you actually live here.