Interpol has conducted a global sweep of over 1,770 call centers suspected of telecommunications and email scams that has resulted in over 2,000 arrests.
According to Cyberscoop, the two-month operation, which involved 76 countries, also intercepted $50m worth of stolen funds.
The crackdown was conducted between March and May this year and focused on ‘social engineering scams’, which is a type of fraud defined by a criminal using a deceptive story to trick victims into giving away personal information.
The operation – named Operation First Light 2022 – including the arrest of a ring of eight suspects connected to an online marking job scam where fraudsters connected victims through social media promising jobs. Law enforcement also raided suspects that were involved with BEC scams
Interpol National Central Bureau head Duan Daqi said, “The transnational and digital nature of different types of telecom and social engineering fraud continues to present grave challenges for local police authorities, because perpetrators operate from a different country or even continent than their victims and keep updating their fraud schemes.”
An operation codenamed ‘Killer Bee’ by Interpol has led to the arrest of three individuals behind cyber operations targeting firms in Southeast Asia.
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