49 arrests made during vast European operation targeting internet fraud

On Tuesday, police forces from several European countries, supported by Belgian police, arrested 49 people as part of an international operation targeting various criminal networks that have embezzled millions of euros by intercepting Internet communications, announced Eurojust on Wednesday. The suspects, “mainly from Cameroon and Nigeria”, were arrested during an operation led by Italian, Polish and Spanish police, said Eurojust, the European Union judicial coordination body, in a statement. No further information was given with regards to where the arrests were made.

Belgian, English and Georgian police forces also provided back up to “The Triangle Operation”. Fifty-eight searches were conducted as part of the operation, which evolved from three parallel operations targeting organised criminal groups using a false identity to send e-mails with the aim of retrieving people's personal data, a technique known as “phishing”.

Criminals then used this data to make “man in the middle” attacks which intercept communications. They diverted six million euros of their victims' (people or companies, including Europeans) money, “through a sophisticated money laundering network”.

Eurojust pointed out that the operation “demonstrated that, together, European institutions and national authorities can successfully combat one of the most difficult-to-detect forms of modern crime”.

(Source: Belga)


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