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 while staying at a Madrid hotel, where he is accused of having racked up more than €20,000 of losses during 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 suspicious activity was reported by a travel booking site. 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 cyber attack, getting the system to authorise his transaction after entering only one cent as the charged amount.
Police said that the transaction had at first 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 latest stay there was for four nights, normally costing €4,000.
They said the man had also consumed mini-bar items during his stays and left other bills unpaid.
The police statement appears to suggest that bookings had been made at other hotels, though no details were given.
ABC reported that the suspect had previously been arrested in the Canary Islands, where he had also stayed at a luxury hotel.
By BBC News
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