Eleven individuals have been arrested in Vietnam and the UK

Jun 6, 2013 08:27 GMT  ·  By

A few days ago, we learned that Vietnamese police had arrested 8 individuals believed to be involved in credit card fraud. As it turns out, the arrests were part of a major law enforcement operation aimed at disabling mattfeuter.ru, known as one of the world’s largest credit card fraud sites.

According to the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the operation was led by Vietnam’s High-Tech Crime Unit, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, SOCA, the Metropolitan Police’s Central e-Crime Unit, and the FBI.

In addition to the 8 individuals arrested in Vietnam, three others have been detained in the UK.

SOCA believes the cybercriminal website has facilitated fraud of over $200 million (€152 million) with the aid of 1.1 million stolen credit cards.

The US Department of Justice has filed charges against Duy Hai Truong, a 23-year-old Vietnamese man believed to be one of the criminal ring’s leaders.

The operation continues even after the arrests. Authorities are now trying to track down the individuals who used the carding website.

Law enforcement agencies are sharing information on those involved with the criminal online forum with their international partners.

“One of the world’s major facilitation networks for online card fraud has been dismantled by this operation, and those engaged in this type of crime should know that that they are neither anonymous, nor beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies,” said SOCA’s Andy Archibald, interim deputy director of the National Cyber Crime Unit.

“We and our partners, in the UK and abroad, continue to protect the public and legitimate businesses by targeting websites trading in stolen card data, and relentlessly pursuing those who operate and frequent them.”

Europol, Visa and MasterCard have supported the operation.