The Spanish National Police have dismantled a cybercrime operation involving a gang that uses fake investment sites that targeted over 300 victims across Europe.
According to the authorities, the group was able to defraud over €12.3 Million ($12.8 Million) using malicious campaigns that revolved around fake cryptocurrency investment sites.
The Hackers Imitate Well-Known Platforms To Carry Out Scams
In a report by Bleeping Computer, the cybercriminals were said to have laundered money stolen from their victims by transferring them from local to foreign banks.
The hackers are believed to have done such in hopes that they can escape the Spanish authorities' critical eyes and tracing abilities.
Since malicious activities were reported, Spain's law enforcement immediately launched an investigation to look into the depth of the case filed by an impersonated financial group.
Through this, they were able to discover six members of the crime ring, who were arrested in Madrid and Barcelona for charges of suspected fraud, money laundering, and usurpation of marital status.
These cybercriminals created a web of fake bank websites, which were used with the typosquatting technique and registered to domains similar to official sites.
Typosquatting is a technique that involves changing or swapping the positions of letters in the domain to look like they are normal to unsuspecting victims.
This usually ends up with the victims following the impersonated site, which is often embedded in phishing emails to draw traffic to the said sites.
Bleeping Computer details that while the victims of the hackers were spread out across Europe, most of the fake websites actually tried to target French people.
These victims are then made to believe that they are investing on a legitimate website, depositing money for the hackers directly to the crime group's bank accounts.
Following this, the funds the cybercriminals collected were moved to different banks in Spain, Portugal, Poland, and France, before eventually returning them to Spanish accounts.
Read More: Network of 11,000 Fake Investment Sites Target Users in Europe - How Do They Work?
The Scams In Spain Are Widespread In The Cryptocurrency Economy As Well
Before the police busted the typosquatting cyber scammers, they had also previously zeroed in on a cryptocurrency scammer on Tuesday.
The cyber scammer was the biggest cryptocurrency scammer in Spain from March 2019 until the fall of 2022.
According to El Pais, by throwing around buzzwords, the hacker was able to pose legitimacy, which then allowed him to victimize hundreds of clients in Spain.
Included in his victims are lawyers, businessmen, notaries, and Russian and Romanian mobsters who are based in the south side of Spain.
According to the Spanish police, the cybercriminal was able to extort each person who interacted with his site for at least €50,000 ($52,000).
In recent days, scammers have been on the move to target vulnerable accounts through different scamming techniques that continuously evolve in response to their needs.
However, authorities like the Spanish police remain relentless in their efforts to make sure that these cybercriminals do not get away with their illegal activities.
With this, individuals are advised to be wise in their interactions with sites, networks, or people that are unfamiliar or sketchy to keep the safety of their data and resources and of their own.
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