In a co-ordinated effort of Europol with the involvement of international law enforcement agencies, 130s were arrested for having air tickets purchased with stolen credit card details.
Η business organized in 140 airports on five continents (Europe, Asia, Australia, America and Africa), in 49 countries.
The action took place from 16 to 17 June.
According to statistics, this criminal activity has caused huge losses to airlines. Losses are estimated at about 1 million, not to mention losses from stolen cards.
“Airline ticket fraud is a complex and global phenomenon that raises a number of issues better safetys. Suppressing organized crime groups operating in this sector requires communication between airlines, banks, card payment systems, IATA and law enforcement authorities at an international level," the statement said. Europol.
Law enforcement agencies had three coordination centers, Europol in The Hague, Singapore's Interpol, and AMERIPOL in Bogota. Let's say there was additional help from the Canadian and US authorities.
Together with representatives from the private sector, such as airlines, major card companies (American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Visa Inc. and Visa Europe), 222 illegal transactions were recorded, and most of them (74%) were in Europe.
Of the 130 people questioned by the police, 101 of them were arrested in Europe, 11 in Asia, 10 in Latin America, 2 in the USA, and 6 in Canada.
It appears that those arrested were involved in various criminal offences, such as human or drug trafficking, smuggling goods, fraud, cybercrime, illegal immigration and terrorism.
Wil van Gemert, Europol's Deputy Chief Operating Officer, said it was the result of multiple actions with "meticulous planning between Europol, law enforcement, law enforcement and border control, airlines and credit card companies." He was a perfect example how can our combined forces identify organized crime gangs involved in large-scale fraud and other crimes? ”
One of the positive results of the actions was that airlines can now better cooperate with Issuing Bank Cards to combat this type of fraud
