Guardia Civil agents have arrested cybercriminal Jordi Otero.
A chainsaw for 160 euros, a brushcutter for 780, an air compressor for 250 and even a Yamaha motorcycle (no age statement) for 300 euros. The Facebook group Cheated by Jordi Otero or José Barro has been furious in recent weeks at the complaints of dozens of victims who have been scammed and sometimes blackmailed by one of the most active cybercriminals in the country.
Jordi Otero Barro, 31, has spent his first night in prison after the Civil Guard arrested him in Madrid this Wednesday following an intensive investigation. The detainee is aware of more than 250 crimes, including fraud and extortion, all committed by technological means, as well as numerous arrest warrants and pending sentences after being convicted by various courts across the state.
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Otero never came into possession of any of the products he used to bait his victims. According to research by Team @ [arroba] the Civil Guard of Jaén (in this province the prisoner’s criminal history began in municipalities such as Jamilena, Villacarrillo, Alcalá la Real or Pozo Alcón), the alleged perpetrator of the denounced facts had created accounts on various internet platforms – with a preference via the dating portals with Women – in which he offered garden furniture and other products at very reasonable prices. In his offers, he reduced products significantly in order to encourage buyers to complete transactions.
The detainee gained the confidence to act, according to investigators, by sending his victims photos of other people who confirmed his identity, as well as forged identification documents and, on occasion, even identifying himself as a member of the armed forces and the security service or as a member’s relative.
Otero had studied everything. So much so that he also tricked third parties into collaborating as money mules – people who receive money from an illegal source in their bank account and transfer it to other accounts for a commission – to launder their benefits, all of it after gaining confidence in various dating applications and social networks. In this way, he made available to his victims the means of payment of those middlemen who received the money in their accounts, with the task of delivering it to him by other means and under the pretext that it was a money transfer from a relatives and that he was in an emergency situation, as indicated by the Civil Guard, who have dubbed this conspiracy Operation Oterwanted.
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When the victims realized the deception or strangeness of these transactions, the detainee allegedly threatened and blackmailed them into continuing to cooperate in the money laundering mechanisms, according to the agents who conducted the investigation.
As the alleged scammer’s activities increased, those affected organized themselves on internet forums to try to put an end to their misdeeds. “He wanted to sell me a brush cutter that had already been sold by its owner in Wallapop,” complained one of the members of the victim group, who, like the vast majority, never received his purchase despite the financial settlement.
The Civil Guard calculates that the profits from his recent criminal activity may exceed €100,000. In addition to the fraud, Otero Barro has also been accused of various crimes of extorting his victims.
The Civil Guard @ team recommends distrusting “bargains”, especially if they are overly attractive or if the seller wants the transaction to be completed urgently or quickly. In any case, agents specializing in investigating crimes committed through new technologies find it convenient to conduct reliable verifications of the seller’s identity through video calls or personal records in order to verify his reputation on the platforms and the existence of the to inspecting product to inspect purchased.
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