14 DAY TRIAL // A large group of fraudsters operating in several countries in Europe causing financial losses estimated at €6 Million / $6.7 million to different companies has been dismantled in an international police effort coordinated by Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and Eurojust agencies.
Law enforcement arrested 49 individuals suspected of fraudulent activity carried out with the help of malicious software against large and medium companies in Italy, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Georgia.
Crooks spied email communication and diverted money to their accounts
After gaining illegal access to email accounts belonging to victims, the group monitored communication for payment requests made by the targeted company to its customers.
When such a demand was recorded, the fraudsters relied on social engineering tactics to trick the customer into making the payment to a bank account controlled by the crooks.
“These payments were immediately cashed out through different means,” Europol informs on Wednesday, in an announcement about the operation.
Most of the suspects are from Nigeria, Cameroon and Spain and they resorted to a complicated money laundering scheme that moved the funds through multiple accounts outside the European Union to lose their origin.
Multiple law enforcement units were involved in the action
Police raided 58 properties in search of more evidence of the illegal activity, and seized electronic equipment (laptops, hard disks, telephones, tablets, USB drives), credit cards, SIM cards, fake documents and bank account papers.
Involved in the operation were the Italian Polizia di Stato (Postal and Communications Police), the Spanish National Police, the Polish Police Central Bureau of Investigation as well as UK law enforcement bodies.
The action took place on Tuesday and was coordinated from Europol’s offices in The Hague. An important part in successfully dismantling the cybercriminal operation was played by the EC3’s Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) division.