Last month the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) celebrated its first anniversary and with that its successes in tackling online crime.
The main task of EC3 is to disrupt the operations of organised crime networks that commit serious and organised cybercrime, part of which is the on-going problem of payment fraud.
EC3 is currently providing operational and analytical support to 16 investigations regarding payment fraud, while in 2013 it supported investigations that resulted in the dismantling of three different international networks relating to credit card fraud:
- One operation led to the arrest of 29 suspects who had made a 9 million Euro profit by compromising the payment credentials of 30,000 credit card holders.
- The second network that was tackled resulted in a total of 59 arrests across several Member States, the dismantling of two illegal workshops for producing devices and software to manipulate Point-of-Sale terminals, and the seizure of illegal electronic equipment, financial data, cloned cards, and cash. The group had apparently affected around 36.000 bank/credit card holders in 16 European countries.
- The third operation targeted an Asian network responsible for illegal transactions and the purchasing of airline tickets. Two members of the network, travelling on false documents, were arrested at Helsinki airport and around 15,000 compromised credit card numbers were found on seized computers. The network had apparently been using card details stolen from cardholders worldwide, with the losses to European card holders and banks amounting to over 70,000 euros.
A further operation against a group who used fraudulent credit cards to purchase airline tickets was coordinated by the EC3 in 38 airports from 16 European countries. During the operation, more than 200 suspicious transactions were reported by the industry and 43 individuals were arrested (followed by another 74 arrests after the action day; 117 arrests in total).
These were all found to be linked to other criminal activities, such as the distribution of credit card data via the internet, intrusions into financial institutions’ databases, other suspicious transactions, drug trafficking, human smuggling, counterfeit documents including IDs, and other types of fraud.
The cases are good examples of the way in which frauds involving the internet are increasing. But the technical nature of online and computer fraud means investigations, and prosecutions, are often lengthy and drawn out. It also means that defending charges of this nature requires expert advice from solicitors at the cutting edge of IT and internet law.
Contact Lewis Nedas’ Criminal Lawyers in London
If you have been charged in connection with online fraud and require specialist legal advice, please contact our solicitors Jeffrey Lewis or Siobhain Egan on 020 7387 2032 or complete our online enquiry form here.
This blog post is intended as a news item only - no connection between Lewis Nedas and the parties concerned is intended or implied.
