National Police have arrested 69 people over a scam which blocked their online system for making immigration appointments, so that foreign citizens were forced to pay intermediaries for what should be a free procedure.
An investigation by the force’s immigration brigade in Valencia province obtained a report from the cybercrime unit, which enabled similar investigations in other provinces to make progress with why foreign citizens were experiencing problems making appointments to carry out various obligatory procedures.
This led officers to a criminal network that was using a bot – a computer programme for carrying out repetitive tasks automatically – to take practically all the appointments nationwide.
“This interrupted normal access to a free public service provided by the National Police, which has the exclusive authority to carry out immigration procedures in the whole country,” explained a spokesman for the force.
Full report in Friday’s Costa Blanca News
