Spanish police have arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of hacking a hotel booking website and reserving luxury rooms priced at up to €1,000 ($1,180; £870) per night for just one euro cent.
He was detained at a Madrid hotel, where he was accused of incurring charges totalling more than €20,000 across several stays.
Police said the alleged crime involved altering the payment validation system and was the first of its kind to be detected.
Their investigation began after a travel booking site reported suspicious activity. It took just four days to complete – the Spanish outlet ABC reported that the suspect used his real identity to make the reservations.
According to police, the suspect is believed to have sabotaged the payment system via a cyberattack, causing the system to authorise his transaction after entering only 1 cent as the charged amount.
Police said the transaction initially appeared to have been carried out correctly. The irregularity was only discovered when the payment platform transferred the actual amount – €0.01 – to the hotel company.
Four days later, police located the suspect at the Madrid hotel and arrested him. His most recent stay there was for four nights and typically cost €4,000.
They said the man had also consumed mini-bar items during his stays and left other bills unpaid.
The police statement suggests that bookings had been made at other hotels, though no details were provided.
ABC reported that the suspect had previously been arrested in the Canary Islands, where he had also stayed at a luxury hotel.
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com
