An investigation by the Met’s Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) has led to the arrest of eight people behind a phishing attack that netted them a woman's £1 million lifesavings.
The woman was targeted by a phishing email purporting to be from her bank. The email directed the victim to a web page which was a replica of her bank's genuine website.
The fraudsters were sent her banking details after she entered them on the fake website. Her stolen details were then sold for £3,200 to another criminal network, who used a third fraudster to call the bank posing as the victim and have contact details associated with the account changed. Her savings were stolen via online transfers to numerous accounts, including several controlled by other individuals.
Police raided fraudsters homes
When police raided the London addresses they found 11,000 credit cards - of which over 8,000 were those of UK customers - worth an estimated £2.5m. They also seized multiple computers used for fraud.
The gang were all found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of crime at Southwark Crown Court.
Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, of the PCeU, said: "This is an excellent example of what can be achieved when police work together with industry to tackle the top tier of cyber crime”.
For further information visit the Met Police 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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