The Catalan police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, has dismantled a sophisticated scam that preyed on hopeful renters and buyers in the region’s competitive housing market. The woman, identified as Vanesa B.S., allegedly operated since 2013 by creating a credible-looking online real estate portal to advertise properties she had no legal right to represent. She would then collect rental deposits and down payments before disappearing, leaving victims without a home and without their money.
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After a recent intensification of the investigation, she was arrested and, following an initial release, has now been remanded in custody by a judge in Sabadell as of early February.
The Modus Operandi
According to investigators, the suspect’s method was consistent. She built an apparently legitimate website to lend her operation an air of credibility. She would engage with potential clients, often meeting them to formalize rental or sale contracts. Taking advantage of the difficult housing market, she offered attractive prices that appealed to individuals desperate to find a home, frequently targeting vulnerable people.
Once a victim was convinced, she would collect a deposit, typically a few thousand euros for a rental, or a much larger down payment—known as arras—for a property sale. With the transfer complete, the woman would vanish, becoming unreachable and leaving the victims to discover they had been swindled.
While many of the frauds involved smaller amounts from rental deposits, making them harder to track on a large scale, some victims lost substantial sums. In one case, a single individual was defrauded of €100,000, and another lost €70,000 on a fictitious apartment sale.
The Investigation Unfolds
The case was brought to the forefront in late 2023 when the Mossos’ Investigation Unit in Sabadell received a cluster of similar complaints. Four victims—three in Sabadell and one in the Baix Llobregat comarca—reported having been duped by a supposed real estate agent who disappeared after receiving payment.
These initial reports, totaling €21,000 in losses, prompted police to set up a sting operation. In October 2023, officers arrested Vanesa B.S. in Gavà as she was meeting with another potential victim. Despite the evidence, a judge released her on charges.
Undeterred, she allegedly continued her criminal activity. Soon after, three more complaints were filed, this time amounting to a staggering €110,000. Faced with the escalating series of crimes and her persistence, investigators launched a second operation, arresting her again in Barcelona. This time, a Sabadell judge ordered her to be held in prison pending trial, as reported by El Caso and 20 Minutos.
A Trail of Victims
Police have traced the woman’s alleged activities back to 2013. The total amount defrauded currently stands at €360,000 from 34 known victims. An earlier phase of the scam is believed to have netted €210,000 from 20 different people. Since her imprisonment in February, seven more victims have come forward, adding another €14,000 to the tally.
Investigators believe the true number of victims could be significantly higher and are looking into whether the woman acted alone. Some victims mentioned names of supposed “collaborators,” but police are still working to determine if these individuals were knowing accomplices or were also deceived by the main suspect. It also remains unclear if she had any authorization to market the properties listed on her site, though authorities suspect she did not.
Authorities noted that the suspect was adept at exploiting “gaps” in the system, and the high volume of smaller-value scams made her pattern of behavior difficult to detect for years.
