The online tourist fraud: the new measures of technological investigation in Spain

Abstract

The present article is about an examination of the new technological measures for the investigation, created by the Organic Act (Ley Orgánica) 13/2015, of 5th of October. These measures will serve us to improve de criminal investigation, especially on those crimes that are done by technological means, but also for the traditional crimes. Specifically, we are going to make an especial reference to the tourist fraud, which affects both consumers and entrepreneurs. This fraud is especially notable in the online contracts, as we will see above, because those contracts have increased the number of online frauds in the last years; in the tourism I am referring to the stealing of personal data and the creation of ghost companies or non-existent offers. In first place, we are going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the online contracts, and also about the real necessity of new investigation means that finally have been satisfied with the introduction of the new technological measures of investigation, which we are going to analyse: the computerized undercover agent, the interception of the telematics and telephone communications, the recording of oral communications by electronic devices, the tracking, localization and recording images devices, the registry of mass storage devices and the remote registry of computer equipment.