Ukrainian police detain suspected cybercriminals behind bank fraud scheme
Ukrainian police detained several members of a criminal gang that made tens of thousands of dollars by stealing banking information through phishing websites.
According to a police report published Monday, the suspects posted phishing links on European e-commerce websites and then called their users, mostly in the Czechia convincing them to click on those links to pay for goods or services.
The criminals then used customer payment data to withdraw their money and either transferred the stolen funds to controlled bank accounts or converted them into cryptocurrency.
The scammers took $80,000 from dozens of victims before Ukrainian and Czech authorities arrested three organizers and five active participants of the gang in September.
During that operation, law enforcement officers conducted 29 searches in Kyiv and Dnipro, confiscating the suspects' computers and mobile phones. This helped them identify and arrest other suspects.
During the second wave of searches in January, the police arrested another organizer of the scheme along with eight of his accomplices. Police found laptops, mobile phones, bank and SIM cards, as well as work records that tied the suspects to the scheme.
In a video posted by Ukrainian law enforcement on Monday, one of the detained suspects confessed to his involvement and said that he was sorry for what he did.
If found guilty, the criminals could face up to 12 years in prison.
This is not the first time that Ukrainian and Czech police officers have worked together to apprehend criminals responsible for internet schemes. In November, they dismantled a criminal gang that made millions of dollars through fraudulent phone calls.
The criminals used a technique called “vishing” (a combination of “voice” and “phishing”) to call their targets and trick them into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal details. In Czechia alone, the gang made approximately €8 million ($8.7 million) through such calls.
Daryna Antoniuk
is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine. She writes about cybersecurity startups, cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia. She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted, The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Post.