The International Police Organization said, on Friday, that it has produced about a thousand suspects and seized $ 27 million in the Interpol operation to combat large-scale cybercrime across the continent.
During a police operation conducted under the code name HAECHI-II between June and September 2021, it was discovered that “transnational organized criminal groups used the Internet to defraud millions of dollars from their victims, and the money was subsequently transferred to various bank accounts around the world.”
A total of 1,000,000 people were created, 2,350 bank accounts were blocked and more than fifty reports of identity theft, fraudulent investment and money laundering were issued in connection with illegal betting, according to a statement from the Lyon-based International Police Organization. . Interpol cites as an example a large textile factory in Colombia whose owner’s email account was hacked through which they wanted to transfer $16 million to two Chinese accounts. Half of the amount was already transferred when the fraud was discovered.
The Colombian judiciary, in contact with the Interpol office in Bogota, froze the transferred funds thanks to the cooperation of the Beijing, Bogota and Hong Kong offices. 94 percent of the amount was found in record time, saving the company from bankruptcy. An investigation in Colombia has uncovered a malicious computer virus dubbed Squid Game after a South Korean series was broadcast on media service provider Netflix. The latter is a virus that, when installed on a mobile phone, can steal the user’s bank details and pay for premium services without his knowledge.
Operation HAECHI-II has shown that with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, online financial crime has reached gigantic proportions. He is not in a state of deterioration
Said Jürgen Stock, Secretary General of INTERPOL.
The International Police Organization has 195 members and a budget of 145 million euros. Its new chief, Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Chief Inspector of the UAE Ministry of Interior, was elected on Thursday at the annual general meeting of the Board of Directors held in Istanbul this year.
