The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, also known as Europol, announced the arrest of a criminal cybergroup in Belgium and the Netherlands. Their offenses included phishing, fraud, scams and money laundering activities.
The gang had a successful run as the police found 2 million euros in their possession. Law enforcement authorities arrested nine individuals in the Netherlands. The suspects are eight men and a woman.
The suspects are men of ages ranging from 25 to 36 and a 25-year-old woman. Police carried out 24 searches in Amsterdam, Central Netherlands, West Brabant, Rotterdam, East Netherlands, and the Hague police units. They found firearms, designer clothes, expensive watches, and tens of thousands of euros in cash during the search.
Europol Receives a Go-ahead from Belgian Court
On June 21, a Belgian investigating judge issued a European investigating order to the Public Prosecution Service in Amsterdam. This allowed the law enforcement agents to arrest the suspect and search their homes.
According to the Belgian police, the cybercrime gang approached victims via e-mails, text messages, and even Whatsapp messages. They then present phishing links which leads to a counterfeit(banking) website.
The hackers used their network to gain access to the victim’s accounts and proceeded with their money-motivated attack. The authorities that busted the cybercrime group said they wanted to send a message that investigation doesn’t stop at national borders.
The cross-border operation convinced victims into clicking the link which requested their credentials to subsequently steal millions of euros from the victim’s accounts with the money mule technique.
Individual hackers and cybercrime groups with no official hacking names or history have been unveiled in the past few days, it was reported that an Ex-Amazon employee, Paige Thompson was convicted for hacking Capital One Bank and stealing data of over 100 million customers.
The data breach cost the bank to settle $190 million with its customers. The United States Treasury Department also fined them $80 million for failing to protect its customer’s data. Paige Thompson now faces 5 years imprisonment for her massive cyberattack.
