The UK’s Metropolitan Police have busted an international crypto scam ring in what has been described as the biggest fraud operation ever led by the force.
In the UK alone more than 200,000 potential victims have been directly targeted through the iSpoof fraud website and contacted by scammers hiding behind false identities, the Met said in a Statement, The scammers involved posed as representatives of a number of major banks including Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, NatWest, Nationwide and TSB.
“Scotland Yard’s cybercrime unit worked with the National Crime Agency and international law enforcement, including authorities in the US and Ukraine, to take down the website this week,” according to the statement. “This was an important stage in a worldwide operation, which has been taking place out of the public eye since June 2021, to target a suspected organized crime group.”
Cyber criminals used iSpoof to make it appear as if they were calling their victims from banks, tax offices and other institutions as they attempted to defraud them.
According to figures released by British police, victims of the scam are believed to have lost hundreds of millions of pounds, and the criminals behind the site made close to £3.2 million ($3.9 million) over a 20-month period.
“The loss reported to action fraud as a result of calls and texts via iSpoof is approximately £48 million. Because fraud is so under-reported, the full amount is believed to be much higher,” the statement said.
The Met’s Cyber and Economic Crimes Units coordinated the effort with the National Crime Agency, Europol, Eurojust, the Dutch authorities and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“More than 100 people have been arrested in the UK, most of them on suspicion of fraud,” police said. “iSpoof allowed users who paid for the service Bitcoin, to hide their phone number so it looks like they are calling from a trusted source. This process is known as ‘spoofing’.”
The Met’s Cyber Crime Unit launched an investigation into iSpoof in June 2021. The site was created in December 2020 and has 59,000 user accounts. Police officers infiltrated the site and began collecting data in collaboration with their international partners. The 70 million rows of data in the site’s servers contained a wealth of information. The bitcoin record was also traced by the Met.
Detective Superintendent Helen Raines, who leads the Met’s cybercrime-focused efforts, commented that “by removing iSpoof we have prevented further crimes and fraudsters from targeting future victims”.
“Our message to criminals who have used this website, we have your details and we are working hard to find you, wherever you are,” she said.
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