14 DAY TRIAL // Authorities from Canada and Europe have cracked down on a major international ring of card fraudsters. 29 individuals have been arrested in Canada, France and Germany.
The law enforcement operation, dubbed “Operation Spyglass,” has been supported by Europol’s European Cybercrime Center (EC3).
The suspects are said to be responsible for manipulating point-of-sale (POS) devices in European and North American Shopping Centers.
The first arrests took place in March 2013, when 7 suspects were detained in France and 6 in Germany. In late-October, another 16 individuals were arrested by Canadian authorities in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, Boucherville, Chambly and Magog. Among them, there was the alleged head of the cybercriminal ring.
The suspects are accused of stealing the details of at least 30,000 payment cards by modifying POS terminals. The stolen data was then used to make counterfeit cards. An average of around $400 (€300) was withdrawn from each account. The total losses amount to around $12 million (€9 million).
The arrested individuals face charges of card counterfeiting, fraud, unauthorized possession and illegal trafficking of card data, possession of stolen property and theft.
“This is another great example of very successful cooperation between law enforcement in several EU Member States, colleagues worldwide and in Canada, utilising Europol’s unique tools, whereby EC3 acted as a virtual and physical platform for the joint operation,” commented the Head of the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Troels Oerting.
“We are continuously investing more resources into this vital support platform, and we can now see the result of the joint work, especially by also providing forensic cyber expertise from EC3 to these complicated cases. I would like to congratulate our colleagues in EU Member States and Canada for their excellent work!”