Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) has reported that 44 members of a global credit card fraud network have been arrested.
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency worked in a joint operation coordinated by the Romanian Cybercrime Unit to catch the global network of fraudsters.
The operation called “Pandora-Storm” targeted the group involved in online fraud and placing skimmers on cash machines throughout Europe.
Raids on 82 houses in the United Kingdom and Romania uncovered illegal electronic equipment, financial data, cloned cards, and cash. During the operation 2 illegal workshops for producing devices and software were also found and dismantled.
More than 400 police officers were involved in the operation. The organised crime group has amassed approximately 36,000 victims in 16 European countries.
The criminals used counterfeit payment cards with stolen data for illegal transactions mainly in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States.
For further information visit Europol’s website.
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To report a fraud and receive a police crime reference number, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.
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