Operation First Light: Almost 4000 online fraudsters arrested in raids

Interpol is celebrating a major success against cyber criminals. A coordinated police operation in 61 countries has dealt a heavy financial blow to internationally operating online fraud networks. This was announced by the Interpol Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Center (IFCACC) on Thursday. In the process, 6745 bank accounts were frozen, assets with a total value of 257 million US dollars were confiscated and the transnational organized crime networks involved were dismantled. "Operation First Light 2024" targeted phishing, investment fraud, fake online shopping sites as well as romance and identity fraud. The officers arrested 3,950 suspects and identified 14,643 other possible criminals on almost every continent.

According to Interpol, the investigators also seized the equivalent of around 2 million US dollars in cryptocurrencies during the raids carried out between March and May. Further assets worth over 120 million US dollars were seized. These included real estate, high-value vehicles, expensive jewelry and many other valuable items and collectors' items. With the help of Interpol's "Global Rapid Intervention of Payments" (I-GRIP) system, which is designed to detect and stop illegal proceeds of crime, the police forces involved intercepted 331,000 US dollars in one attempted business email scam alone. A Spanish victim had transferred this sum to Hong Kong.

In another case, the authorities in Australia managed to seize the equivalent of 3.7 million US dollars in the name of a victim of identity fraud. These funds were transferred to bank accounts of cyber crooks in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Another notable result of the operation was the dismantling of a "sophisticated international fraud network in the capital of Namibia", Windhoek. In the process, 88 local youths were rescued from the hands of a mafia who had been forced to commit fraud. The investigators confiscated 163 computers and 350 cell phones and handed over the data stored on them to the headquarters of the General Secretariat of Interpol for analysis.

Online fraud has an impact on the global economy

Similarly, coordination between the Singapore Police Force's Fraud Prevention Center and the Hong Kong Law Enforcement Anti-Deception Coordination Center and local banks prevented a tech support scam, according to the network. A 70-year-old victim was saved from losing savings worth the equivalent of around 281,200 US dollars. Joint investigations by the Brazilian and Portuguese authorities also dismantled several fraud networks operating worldwide.

"The results of this global police operation are more than just numbers," emphasized Isaac Kehinde Oginni, Director of the Interpol Financial Crime Centre. "They mean that lives have been saved and crimes prevented." The global economy is also strengthened by such actions spanning many nations. First Light has been mainly funded by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security since its launch in 2023. The central police offices for Europe, Europol, and their counterparts for Africa and Asia were also involved. "The world is struggling with the serious challenges of social engineering fraud," Yong Wang explained, Head of Interpol's National Central Bureau in Beijing. "Organized criminal gangs are active from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Africa, with victims on every continent." According to estimates, the German economy alone suffers 206 billion euros in damage each year as a result of cybercrime.

(nie)