In a hotel in Palma de Mallorca, three students from Spain tried to finance their vacation with fake credit cards. After initially failing to check in because there wasn’t enough money on the first card, they continued their fraud attempt with a second card – and then actually got a room.
As the “Mallorca Newspaper” reported, the incident left an attentive receptionist uneasy and so he alerted the police a short time later. But they couldn’t prove anything to the Spaniards. They initially continued their stay in the hotel.
Students cloned the credit card for their hotel stay
However, the real owner of the first credit card, a Swede, soon realized the unusual charges on his statement and contacted the hotel.
The hotel staff then threw the students out and informed the police again. According to reports from the “Mallorca Zeitung”, they were able to arrest the fraudsters a little later at Palma airport. The police believe that the students cloned the credit cards and spied out the PIN of the Swedish owner. It is still unclear how exactly the fraudsters did this.
Interpol is now investigating fraudulent students
During the investigation it also emerged that the second credit card that the students wanted to use did not belong to them either. The rightful owner is a Canadian tourist whose card was stolen.
Given the international dimension of the case, Interpol was called in. It turns out this wasn’t the students’ first attempt at cheating. In total they stole around 2,500 euros.