Hotel room Photo: ROBERTO PERI / ImageSource / Profimedia
The Spanish police announced on Wednesday the arrest of a young hacker who stayed in luxury hotels paying one cent per night instead of 1,000 euros, reports AFP, taken over by Agerpres.
The cybercriminal selects the payment option through a well-known international online payment platform, then “modifies the transaction validation process, managing to cause the system to authorize the operation after paying only one cent”, detailed the Spanish National Police in a statement.
The 20-year-old Spaniard was arrested while staying in a luxury hotel in Madrid, having a reservation for four nights, totaling 4,000 euros, for which he had actually paid 10,000 times less.
He stayed several times in this luxury hotel, causing “an economic damage of over 20,000 euros”, said a police spokesman.
In addition, the suspect, the alleged author of a computer fraud, consumed products from the minibar, which he did not pay for later.
The police stated in its statement that it is “the first time that this mode of operation has been detected”. The investigation began following a complaint filed on February 2 by a travel booking agency.
On the booking site, the transaction appeared correctly recorded, with the total amount of the stay and the usual description of the purchase, “whereas, in reality, the actual payment made was only one cent”.
“The irregularity was not detected immediately, but a few days later, when the payment platform transferred to the injured company the amount actually paid – one cent per reservation”, according to the police.
