A huge global police operation has resulted in the removal of dozens of websites that were offering credit card information for sale.
A two-year worldwide investigation led to a series of raids in Australia, Europe, the UK and the USA, resulting in the arrest of two Britons and a Macedonian, and the shutdown of 36 sites, said Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Some credit card and bank account details were being sold for as little as £2 – and each victim would have been utterly oblivious to the trade going on using their data and details.
Lee Miles, the head of Soca’s cyber crime unit, said: [1]“Criminals are turning over vast volumes of these cards. We must match the criminals – it’s an arms race.
“They are industrialising their processes and likewise we have to industrialise our processes to match them.”
It is thought that in many cases the brains behind some of these operations are ‘bedroom’ hackers, recruited into the pay of criminal gangs to create the malware necessary to carry out their fraud.
Another factor that makes it hard for websites to be policed is that many internet service providers allow people to register websites anonymously, which makes them much harder to trace.
Remember that with ProtectMyID membership your credit report will be monitored for changes and you will be alerted to any sign of identity fraud. If you suspect that you have been a victim of fraud, then ProtectMyID’s Fraud Resolution Assistance will ensure a dedicated caseworker will work with you to help you sort everything out from start to finish.
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17851257
