Six people arrested in phishing investigation

A gang of suspected fraudsters, alleged to have stolen details of more than 20,000 bank accounts and credit cards in an operation that could have netted £3 million (US$4.7 million), have been arrested by authorities in London and Navan, Ireland.

According to a statement by the Metropolitan Police, the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) and Irish Garda arrested the five men and one women on suspicion of conspiracy to commit online banking fraud and offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

The police investigation, dubbed “Operation Dynamophone”, explored a criminal campaign that harvested the details of online bank accounts and credit card numbers after the gang allegedly spammed out large numbers of emails pretending to be from legitimate online banking websites.

Once details had been stolen, the suspected fraudsters are said to have accessed online accounts and transferred funds.

The six people remain in custody as the investigation continues.

Clearly old-fashioned…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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