The Mexican Sting: Defrauded businesses and a charity of hundreds of thousands of shekels

July 27, 2022   

Police arrested a new immigrant from Mexico, suspected of committing serial fraud involving foreign credit cards amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels. You bought an apartment: What compensation are you entitled to due to a delay in the delivery of the apartment? Among the businesses that fell victim to the fraud are the owners of a B&B, the Gordonia Hotel, an association that helps the needy, and various businesses throughout the country. The investigation was conducted by the Jerusalem District Fraud Unit, and at the end, a prosecutor's statement was filed against him in preparation for an indictment. Last week, a complaint was received at the Harel Station in the Jerusalem District regarding suspected fraud by representatives of the Gordonia Hotel. According to the complaint, the tourist stayed at the hotel for an extended period of time and paid for their stay using a large number of foreign credit cards. The guest posed as a businessman from a wealthy family abroad. Upon receiving the complaint, the patrol officers detained the suspect, who was in the process of leaving the hotel at the time. After being taken in for questioning, the suspect was arrested and transferred for further processing by the fraud department in the central unit of the Jerusalem District. During the investigation, it became clear that this was a recurring pattern of fraud and deceit committed by the same suspect - and the fraud investigators at the Jerusalem District Police Department located five additional cases committed by the suspect using foreign credit cards. Five complaints were received at police stations across the country from various complainants, most of whom were business owners, that telephone orders for various products were placed from them, and the person ordering the products paid for them using foreign credit card numbers. In retrospect, and after payment and delivery of the products, it turned out that the credit card holders located abroad were not the purchasers and that suspect made the orders fraudulently and without their knowledge. According to the suspicion, that new immigrant committed fraud worth a total of hundreds of thousands of shekels - including 110,000 shekels paid to the Gordonia Hotel where he stayed, 4 businesses and various stores from which he purchased cigarettes, food, jewelry, tickets to a concert by a well-known singer, and more. In addition, it turned out that before his stay at the hotel, he spent an extended period of time in a B&B in the Sharon area and paid in this case too with credit cards that were not his. During the investigation, it was revealed that in addition to everything, the suspect defrauded an association that assists the needy to the extent of tens of thousands of shekels. The suspicion is that the new immigrant misrepresented that he was raising a lot of money from donors from abroad for the association. The suspect transferred foreign credit card numbers from abroad to the association, claiming that they were donor cards. These cards were charged by the association, with the suspect's approval, in the amount of approximately 140,000 shekels - and in return, the association paid tens of thousands of shekels for the suspect's various needs. The investigation also revealed that about a decade ago, the suspect had been in Israel on a foreign tourist visa and defrauded yeshiva students of tens of thousands of shekels, after posing as a cancer patient. He later returned abroad, until he returned last year as a new immigrant to Israel, and even received Israeli citizenship. During the investigation, the police found evidence linking the suspect to the crimes attributed to him, including files with hundreds of foreign credit card numbers, including the CVV code on the back of the card, the expiration date of the cards, as well as correspondence with a foreign entity from Mexico from whom he purchased the files with the credit card data used to commit the fraud, which belong to residents of North and South America. In addition, the IDF investigators uncovered suspicions that the same suspect ordered two fake Mexican passports in the names of foreign people - this was to assist him in committing the fraud and making false representations. The arrest of the 32-year-old suspect, who does not reside in a permanent place, has been extended from time to time at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. With the completion of the investigation and the formation of an evidentiary infrastructure by the Jerusalem District Central Unit, the suspect's arrest was extended last night for an additional four days and a prosecutor's statement was filed against him in preparation for an indictment to be filed in the coming days by the Attorney General's Office.