Interpol anti-fraud operation busts call centers behind business email scams
Law enforcement agencies around the world have arrested about 2,000 people and seized $50 million in a sweeping operation crackdown of social engineering and other scam operations around the globe.
In the latest action in the ongoing “First Light”, an operation Interpol has coordinated annually since 2014, law enforcement officials from 76 countries raided 1,770 call centers suspected of running fraudulent operations such as telephone and romance scams, email deception scams, and financial crimes.
Among the 2,000 people arrested in Operation First Light 2022 were call center operators and fraudsters, and money launderers. Interpol stated that the operation also saw 4,000 bank accounts frozen and 3,000 suspects identified.
“The international nature of these crimes can only be addressed successfully by law enforcement working together beyond borders, which is why Interpol is critical to providing police the world over with a coordinated tactical response,” Rory Corcoran, director of the org’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC), said in a statement. “Telecom and BEC [business email compromise] fraud are sources of serious concern for many countries and have a hugely damaging effect on economies, businesses and communities.”
The operation is the latest example of governments and law enforcement agencies around the world pushing to crack down on growing cyberthreats, from ransomware and other crimes. In May 2022, an Interpol operation dubbed Killer Bee arrested a Nigerian man for using a remote access trojan (RAT) to steal corporate credentials and reroute financial transactions.
Interpol also is working closely not only with law enforcement agencies but also cybersecurity vendors like Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks and Trend Micro in an information-sharing program called Gateway, which was instrumental in the operation that led to the arrests of the SilverTerrier suspects. Such public-private cooperation is critical as countries and companies try to defend against increasingly sophisticated cybercriminal gangs.
“We’re not going to be able to arrest ourselves out of this problem,” Doug Witschi assistant director for cybercrime threat response and operations at Interpol, told The Register in April. “We need to work as a global community on this challenge. And Gateway is one step in that direction.”
Another trend the organisation has detected sees cybercriminals pretending to be Interpol to get money from people who fear they are under investigation.
Scams like those targeted by Operation First Light 2022 are far-reach and lucrative for the attackers. According to the FBI, between 2016 and 2021 there were 241,206 incidents of BEC and email account compromise (EAC) scams around the world that scammed people out of more than $43 billion.
In addition, between January and July 2021, the FBI received more than 1,800 complaints related to online romance scams that resulted in about $133.4 million paid out by victims.
With thanks to the Register. The full story is here: https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/17/interpol_operation_first_light_fraud_scam/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=article
Request A Demo: Security Awareness Training
New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn’t a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilize users as your last line of defense. Request your one-on-one demo of KnowBe4’s security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be!
PS: Don’t like to click on redirected buttons? Cut & Paste this link in your browser: https://info.knowbe4.com/one-on-one-demo-partners?partnerid=001a000001lWEoJAAW