Global Crackdown on Cybercrime Nets 5,500 Arrests

Interpol and law enforcement agencies in 40 countries around the world have arrested more than 5,500 suspects in a global crackdown on cybercrime activities including phishing, business email compromise (BEC), romance scams, and financial fraud. The sprawling operation took place over the course of several months and netted seizures of more than $400 million in cash and cryptocurrency. 

Why It Matters: Crimes like romance scams, voice phishing, illegal online gambling,  and other kinds of relatively unsexy online fraud don’t get the kind of headlines that ransomware and APT operations do, but they represent a massive chunk of the global online crime problem. Interpol and national law enforcement agencies track the groups that run these scams on a national and international level and often make one-off or smaller group arrests, but a crackdown of this level is nearly unprecedented. As part of the operation, police in Beijing took down a large voice phishing cartel that frequently impersonated law enforcement officials and had caused losses of more than $1.1 billion. 

Key Details:

• Operation HAECHI V ran from July through November and targeted several types of online crime, including voice phishing, romance scams, BEC, sextortion, and online gambling. 

• The operation included cooperation from authorities in more than 40 countries, territories and regions

• In one part of the operation, authorities were able to recover nearly all of the $42.3 million taken from a firm in Singapore as part of a BEC scam. Seven suspects were arrested as part of that investigation. 

“The effects of cyber-enabled crime can be devastating - people losing their life savings, businesses crippled, and trust in digital and financial systems undermined. The borderless nature of cybercrime means international police cooperation is essential, and the success of this operation supported by INTERPOL shows what results can be achieved when countries work together,” said Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza.

A key part of this operation was a mechanism called I-GRIP that is designed to quickly stop stolen funds from moving through the global financial system. The tool was used in the interception of funds in the Singapore BEC scam as well as in other individual cases during the HAECHI V campaign.