Europol, in a coordinated effort by the services of the European Cybercrime Center (EC3) and Eurojust, defeated a large group of fraudsters operating in several countries of Europe, causing financial losses to various companies estimated at around 6 million euros.
A total of 49 suspects were arrested for criminal activities carried out through a malicious software and targeted large and medium-sized businesses in Italy, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Georgia.
Scammers spied on email communications and diverted money to their own accounts.
The group acted as follows:
It first obtained and illegally accessed the victims' e-mail accounts, thus monitoring communications concerning the targeted company's payment requests to its customers.
When such e-mails appeared, messengers cheated on the customer to testify the payment to a bank account controlled by them.
"These payments were redeemed by the fraudsters immediately" she said Europol on Wednesday, in a related announcement.
Most of the suspects arrested are from Nigeria, Cameroon and Spain and used a very complex scheme to launder the money, essentially moving the funds through multiple accounts outside the country. European Union so that the authorities lose their tracks.
Η police raided 58 homes to look for more evidence of illegal activity, and seized electronic devices (laptops, hard drives, phones, tablets, USB drives), credit cards, SIM cards, forged documents and bank account documents.