UK and Irish Phishing Gang Brought Down by the Cops
Following an investigation that was led by officers from the Met’s Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), six people, five men and one lady were arrested this week.
Phishing scams can lead to Identity Theft
The suspects are aged 25 to 40 and were arrested in London and County Meath, Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday. The investigation was called Operation Dynamophone and it looked into the phishing and fraud network that managed to systematically harvest victim’s online banking details such as passwords and credit card numbers.
The phishing gang allegedly stole £358,000 via money transfers from up to 10,000 online banking accounts. They are also being accused of stealing an estimated £3m in credit fraud using 10,000 compromised credit card details. Detective Inspector Colin Wetherill went on to say: “We have taken this action to shut down an organized criminal network running an online phishing and account take-over operation. A great deal of personal information was compromised and cleverly exploited for substantial profit. By disrupting the operation we have hopefully prevented further loss to individuals and institutions across the UK. ”
Phishing scams can be found all over the internet, therefore it is advisable for all users to take special precautions. The indirect result of phishing scams is of course Identity Theft which can take forever to fix once a criminal has used your identity to access your personal accounts and life savings.
So to help you avoid becoming a victim of phishing scams, here are a few tips you should consider:
- Never click on links in unsolicited e-mails and never provide sensitive information via e-mail.
- Remember that most companies do not require users to provide sensitive data via e-mail – be cautious.
- Secure your PC with a firewall and an up-to-date antivirus or antiphishing application.
- Lastly if you have been victim to a phishing scam, be very prompt to alert your financial institution and police department.
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