Spanish Internet lottery fraud ring exposed
Date: August 02, 2005Source: The Age
Spanish authorities say they have disbanded an internet fraud network in an operation that resulted in 15 arrests.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday that the ring was involved in a form of identity theft called phishing and may have netted several million euros.
One of its suspected leaders, a 23-year-old Spanish man identified only by the initials J.M.G.R., faced 14 arrest warrants and had fled to Argentina, a ministry statement said. He was arrested in the Argentine city of Santa Fe.
Others in custody included Romanian, Ecuadorean, Argentine and Italian nationals. The network's members used servers in countries such as Argentina, Thailand, Canada, the Netherlands and Russia to avoid detection, the Interior Ministry said.
It did not specify when the arrests were made, but said the investigation got under way at the beginning of this year following a series of complaints from banks.
In phishing scams, internet-based communications often purport to be from legitimate organisations, such as banks, and use that perception of a trusted relationship to get people to reveal personal information.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
In the United States, phishing victims cost banks and credit card issuers an estimated $US1.2 billion ($A1.56 billion) in 2003, according to a report last year by Gartner, an information technology market research firm.
Add comment
Email to a Friend
| Discussion is closed - view comments archieve |
| 2007-11-19 05:28:16 - they are still operating because i... sas |
| 2006-10-23 21:58:41 - Any fraud associated with Euro Credit... Al |
| 2005-12-24 16:32:11 - They are still operating under euroamerica... jayne |
| Total 3 comments |
