A recent international cybercrime investigation has resulted in the arrest of 44 members of a global credit card fraud network. According to Europol, the group's activities affected around 36,000 bank/credit card holders across sixteen European countries.
The EU is the world's largest market for payment card transactions and it is estimated that organised crime groups derive more than 1.5 billion euros a year from payment card fraud in the EU.
The group targeted recently, according to Europol, used sophisticated methods of stealing people's credit and debit card numbers and PIN codes by implanting card reading devices and malicious software on point of sale (POS) terminals in big shopping centres across Europe.
They then used counterfeit payment cards with stolen data for further illegal transactions, mainly in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and USA.
The members of the group also set up a sophisticated criminal network for online fraud.
Last week, 44 members of the group were arrested in an international operation, coordinated by the Romanian Cybercrime Unit in Romania, in close cooperation with Europol's European Cybercrime Centre.
The operation, called 'Pandora-Storm', resulted in the dismantling of two illegal workshops for producing devices and software to manipulate the terminals. It also caused the seizure of illegal electronic equipment, financial data, cloned cards and cash during 82 house searches in Romania and the UK.
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