Sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling 11-euro web domains for 25,000 euros

The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife sentences a man for defrauding three residents with promises of significant profits.

Generic image of money and web registration details, symbolizing a scam.
IA

Generic image of money and web registration details, symbolizing a scam.

The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has sentenced a man to one year and six months in prison for defrauding three residents, to whom he sold web domains for 25,000 euros with promises of great profits, when their real value did not exceed eleven euros.

The judicial ruling establishes that the defendant must compensate the victims with a total of 21,000 euros. The sentence details that one of the defrauded will receive 4,000 euros, another 2,000 euros, and a third 15,000 euros.
The Court finds it proven that the defendant convinced the complainants by falsely posing as a computer engineer and feigning financial solvency he lacked. Between late 2018 and early 2019, they signed five fraudulent contracts.
The web domains in question had been acquired by the defendant for negligible prices, ranging from 1.90 to 5.90 euros, without any further investment. The defendant returned part of the money after the complaint was filed, but the Court dismisses the mitigating circumstance of damage repair due to the low amount of the sums.
The court highlights that there was a common dynamic of building personal trust and displaying financial solvency, facilitated by the fact that all parties involved resided in the same development in La Cuesta, within the municipality of La Laguna. The convicted individual resorted to evasive and intimidating responses when faced with demands.
The Court acknowledged the mitigating circumstance of undue delay, as the proceedings began in April 2019 and the trial was held weeks before the sentence, with no attribution of the procedure's paralysis to the defendant.