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Posted On

30
March
2023

SBU, Czech law enforcers detain frauds who stole money from EU citizens' bank accounts

KYIV. March 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), jointly with the National Police and law enforcement agencies of the Czech Republic, neutralized a transnational criminal group of fraudsters who stole money from the bank accounts of EU citizens through phishing links in popular online stores.

“According to operational data, since February last year, the frauds have deceived more than 1,000 EU residents for a total of UAH 160 million. During investigative and operational actions in Ukraine, the organizer of the group and his accomplice were detained. In addition, 17 more members of a criminal group were detained in the EU. Among them are citizens of Belarus,” the special service said on the Telegram channel on Thursday.

According to the investigation, the organizer of illegal activities is a resident of Kyiv, an IT specialist, he was looking for accomplices through his own connections, as well as on the Darknet platform.

“In order to implement the fraudulent scheme, the attackers placed ads on online trading platforms selling popular goods at an attractive price. To place an order, customers were offered to follow a phishing link where they entered their bank card details,” the SBU said.

The organizer of the fraudulent scheme, detained in Ukraine, and his accomplice were notified of suspicion under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Part 1 of Article 255 and Part 2 of Article 255 (creation, management of a criminal community or a criminal organization, as well as participation in it), Parts 3, 5 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 28 and Part 4 of Article 190 (organization of taking possession of other people’s property by deceit (fraud), committed repeatedly, through illegal operations using computers technology as part of a criminal organization).

The court selected a measure of restraint for the suspects in the form of detention without the right to make bail.

All the circumstances of the crime are being established in order to bring the perpetrators to justice.