More than 200 arrested in cyber raids aimed at Middle East scam networks

An international law enforcement operation focused on North Africa and the Middle East took down phishing infrastructure and resulted in the arrest of 201 people between October and February.

Interpol on Monday said Operation Ramz was backed by Qatar and the European Union — which worked with Interpol to coordinate with cybersecurity companies and the governments of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia and the UAE.

Investigators found hundreds of compromised devices that were used as part of the cybercriminal operation and notified device owners as part of the raids. 

Police in Jordan took down a compound used to run financial fraud scams. Victims were urged to send their money to financial trading platforms that were then shut down once funds had been deposited. 

The raid found 15 people carrying out the scams, but Jordanian officials determined that they were all victims of human trafficking who were recruited on false promises of employment. When they arrived from their home countries in Asia, their passports were confiscated and they were forced to take part in the schemes. 

Two people accused of running the scam center were arrested, while another person was arrested in Algeria after experts traced a phishing-as-a-service platform to a server in the country. The server and multiple devices containing phishing software were seized. 

Three people were arrested during a raid on a Moroccan compound following the discovery of hard drives that contained banking data and software used for phishing schemes. Another raid in Oman led police to a server that had been infected with malware and used for cyberattacks. 

Interpol said in addition to the 201 people arrested, 382 other suspects were identified, 53 servers were seized and 3,867 victims were identified. 

Cybersecurity firm Team Cymru told Recorded Future News that it participated in the operation and identified several malicious servers underpinning phishing, malware and large-scale cyber scams targeting people in the region. 

Operation Ramz is the latest effort by international law enforcement agencies to address cyber scam operations and phishing-as-a-service tools that have lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals and netted criminal organizations billions of dollars. 

The U.S. and other nations have focused on cyber scam operations across Southeast Asian countries but experts have warned for months that the schemes are now proliferating across the Middle East and Africa — particularly as those fleeing disrupted compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos look to restart their operations. 

Over the last month, police in Indonesia arrestedmore than 500people running cyber scam operations in the country and warned that they may change visa rules to stop people from entering the country and violating the 30-day visa-free rules.