1700 cases of fraud:
Brutal cartel deprived Austrians of millions
The Federal Criminal Police Office, in cooperation with the Salzburg State Criminal Police Office, the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office and international colleagues, has succeeded in striking a huge blow against cyber criminals. The latter operated a huge cartel from Latvia with SIM cards that were used for fraud and child pornography.
In line with the current "10 days against phishing" campaign, which is drawing attention to the most common methods used by telephone and message fraudsters, the Federal Criminal Police Office announced on Friday what is probably the biggest blow in domestic history against the criminals behind the phishing scams, according to Federal Criminal Police Office Director Andreas Holzer. In that case, a brutal cartel was uncovered last week that traded in vast quantities of SIM cards.
More than 3200 criminal offenses - so far
The cartel - there have been seven arrests and 26 house searches in Riga, Latvia, and Estonia - is also known for attempted murder by arson, extortion and various other crimes. In this particular case, the Latvians are accused of thousands of fraud-related crimes, possibly committed in more than 80 countries. The damage caused by the 3200 cases of fraud to date, 1700 of them in Austria, amounts to 4.2 million euros. And is likely to increase significantly.
SIM cards were sold on to criminals
The modus operandi was quite simple: the members of the cartel traveled across Europe and bought so-called SIM boxes, i.e. boxes containing a large number of SIM cards. They then sold these on to criminals from all over the world via a website that has since been closed by the authorities. The latter were then able to use the SIM card numbers for their crimes, which mostly involved classic scams such as fake police officers, daughter-son tricks or fake stores.
Sales platforms led to a trail in Riga
In Austria, an analysis by the Federal Criminal Police Office and the public prosecutor's office revealed that various numbers linked to phishing attacks on sales platforms led to Latvia. So the police departments joined forces with the help of Europol. It soon became clear to the more than 80 investigators that they had stirred up a can of worms.
Fraudsters drove expensive Porsches and Teslas
The final raid took place during a joint action day on October 10. More than 1,200 SIM boxes with more than 40,000 SIM cards were seized from companies in Riga, and five servers with data from the last three years and more than 50 million accounts in use were shut down. Cryptocurrencies worth 330,000 US dollars, cash worth 441,000 euros and luxury cars, such as a Porsche Macan, two Tesla cars and a Ducati bike, were seized, as were alarm revolvers.
Suspect jailed for attempted murder
The main suspect from Latvia was already in custody for attempted murder and blackmail at the time. Other accomplices in the cartel are currently under investigation and the amount of damage and the number of fraud cases is likely to skyrocket. Bernhard Rausch, Salzburg State Police Director, is pleased that it has been possible to protect further victims from harm. Vienna's public prosecutor Nina Bussek emphasized the good work of the cyber prosecutors, Andreas Holzer praised the international cooperation.
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