At least 142 people were arrested during a joint operation carried out by France, Germany, Australia, Ukraine, the United States and Canada to remove offered web pages phishing service for scammers who wish to impersonate a trusted company or contact of their victims.

The main administrator of the portal, which made a profit of more than 3.7 million euros in 16 months, was arrested in Great Britain.

As announced by the agency Eurojust on Thursday, it is estimated that this platform is behind a worldwide losses of more than 115 million eurosalthough it has been inactive since last November 8, when US and Ukrainian authorities managed to disconnect the server.

This site allows scammers who register and pay for their services to make anonymous calls or send recorded messages intercept one-time passwords and access confidential information of its victimscyber crime known as “spoofing” (identity theft).

web users can impersonate an unlimited number of entitiessuch as banks, retail companies and government agencies.

Eurojust President, Ladislav Hamran, recalls that “cybercrime knows no bounds” and underlined the importance of effective judicial cooperation between different jurisdictions at the European and global level as “key to bringing criminals” to justice.

“These arrests are a message of warning to cybercriminals, who can no longer hide behind the international presumption of anonymity,” added Europol director Catherine de Bolle.

Meanwhile, the commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, commented: “The exploitation of technology by criminals is one of the greatest challenges to law enforcement in the 21st century.”

“By removing the tools and systems that allow fraudsters to deceive innocent people on a large scale, this operation demonstrates how determined we are to target corrupt individuals seeking to exploit the most vulnerable.”

With information from EFE.

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