National Police have arrested a gang of eight people who stole thousands of Euros from foreign nationals by using cloned credit cards for purchases in Spain.

Photo - Interior Ministry

The National Police have arrested a gang of eight people who stole thousands of Euros from foreign nationals by using cloned credit cards for purchases in Spain. They made the copies at their base in Toledo after obtaining the card details by hacking online transactions in the United States.

The investigation began in January this year after police received a number of complaints from US citizens, some of whom said that they had never even visited Spain. The Interior Ministry said in a press release on Monday that the fake cards were made up to match those issued by Spanish and Romanian banks and were used in stores with fake Romanian identity cards or driving licences as identification.

The gang defrauded 75,000 € in this way, but were stopped before another planned fraud of 150,000 € could go ahead.

It’s understood that the US Secret Service has identified the US nationals who fell victim to the network.