14 DAY TRIAL // Two nationals of the Republic of Congo have been arrested by the police in Vienna after emptying no less than €130,000 / $177,000 from the bank account of a victim.
It is not known what lure the two cybercriminals used to entrap the victim, but it appears that the deed was conducted via a phishing scheme. As soon as they got the details for the bank account, the two scammers, aged 38 and 40, transferred the money into one of their accounts.
However, the bank's anti-fraud systems detected the large transaction, stopped the activity and triggered an alert. The bank then notified the police and the two criminals were caught.
According to Kronen Zeitung, the scammers also tried to move part of the money (€48,000 /$65,000) to a bank account in Portugal.
In order to prevent fraud, banks have protection mechanisms in place that are automatically activated when out of ordinary transactions occur. In most cases, there is a transaction limit per account, which can be changed by the owner by contacting the bank’s representatives.
It seems that the two men from Congo were not aware of this and decided to move all the money at once.
The name of the bank whose customers were targeted during the phishing campaign remains undisclosed.