Cops arrests nine suspected of stealing millions via email • The Register #nigeria | #nigeriascams | #lovescams

Europol cops have arrested nine suspected members of a cybercrime ring involved in phishing, internet scams, and money laundering.

The alleged crooks are believed to have stolen “several million euros” from at least “dozens of Belgian victims,” according to that nation’s police, which, along with the Dutch, supported the cross-border operation.

On Tuesday, after searching 24 houses in the Netherlands, officers cuffed eight men between the ages of 25 and 36 from Amsterdam, Almere, Rotterdam, and Spijkenisse, and a 25-year-old woman from Deventer. We’re told the cops seized, among other things, a firearm, designer clothing, expensive watches, and tens of thousands of euros.

The suspects are in police custody and will be extradited to Belgium. Dutch police haven’t ruled out additional arrests.

According to law enforcement, a crime ring contacted victims via scam emails, text messages, and cellphone messaging apps. These messages included a phishing link that led to fake banking websites, which were used to harvest credentials.

“Thinking they were viewing their own bank accounts through this website, the victims were duped into providing their banking credentials to the suspects,” Europol noted, adding that whoever was behind the scams used money mules to transfer funds from victims’ accounts before cashing out their loot. 

In addition to the millions of stolen euros, those fraudsters also trafficked drugs and possibly firearms, according to police.

These latest arrests cap several busy months for global law enforcement agencies, which have placed an increased emphasis on stamping out phishing and other email-based fraud. 

Business email compromise, according to the FBI, remains the most costly threat facing organizations globally. Companies and individuals spent at least $43.3 billion between June 2016 and December 2022 because of these email scams.

Just last week, Interpol released details about another ongoing anti-fraud operation, which has arrested 2,000 suspected fraudulent call center operators and money launderers this year alone.

This global “First Light” operation, which has been ongoing since 2014, also saw 4,000 bank accounts frozen and 3,000 suspects identified in its most recent action.

In May, Dutch police disrupted FluBot’s infrastructure, disconnecting thousands of victims’ devices from the Android malware’s network. This, according to Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, prevented more than 6.5 million spam text messages propagating the bot from reaching potential victims.

The FluBot takedown was the culmination of a Europol-led investigation that involved law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the US.  ®