2023-06-21 15:37:00
The Brussels Federal Judicial Police carried out 37 searches on Wednesday in a file under investigation and arrested 25 suspects active in phishing offenses (theft of personal data online, editor’s note), she announced. by press release. The suspects are young adults.
This criminal organization is suspected of having collected sensitive data from victims through smishing, a type of scam perpetrated via SMS. The victim thus receives a false message from Bpost, for example, inviting him to make a payment within the framework of a “customs clearance” of postal parcels. When the victim clicks on the link sent in the message and enters their bank details to proceed with the “customs clearance”, these are immediately sent to the suspects through the Telegram application.
Armed with this data, the suspect then contacts the victim by telephone with a number which seems to be that of Card Stop or his bank. He then explains to her that she clicked on a fraudulent link, that it is phishing and that fraudulent transactions are in progress on her bank account (which is not the case at this stage). scam). He adds that the transactions can still be blocked and that he will take care of it with the help of his victim.
The euros of the victims are then converted into bitcoins
“Invited to perform a validation via Itsme or via his digipass, the victim actually validates an online purchase via his own account on the BIT4YOU crypto-currency platform for the benefit of members of the criminal organization”, explains the federal police. “The victims’ euros are then converted into bitcoins and go to the blockchain. At some point, this crypto-currency will be converted back into euros and paid (cash-out) or will be used to make purchases. The circle is then closed, the stolen money was laundered.” The case started thanks to the good cooperation between the judicial services and the cryptocurrency platform BIT4YOU, which recently stopped its activities.
The searches made it possible to search for clues on the specific role of the suspects in the criminal process and to carry out seizures by equivalent when possible. The operation involved more than 200 investigators from the districts of Brussels, Walloon Brabant, Mons, Charleroi, Namur, Liège, Luxembourg, Louvain and Halle-Vilvoorde.
The investigation showed that the crooks could obtain on the Telegram network, against payment, ready-to-use phishing kits sold with an explanatory manual allowing them to set up such criminal campaigns. The police insist on the importance of never communicating digipass codes or validating Itsme transactions by telephone.
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