A Franco-Israeli group that used business email compromise (BEC) attacks to divert payments from organizations to bank accounts under their control has been dismantled by Europol in a joint operation with police forces from France, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, and Spain.
In a single case, the fraudsters managed to steal €38,000,000 ($40.3M) from a company within a few days and quickly transferred the money across Europe and China before cashing out in Israel. The investigation led to the seizure of electronic equipment and cars during eight house searches, as well as the freezing of bank accounts holding a total of €5,100,000 and €350,000 in digital assets.
In addition, the police apprehended six French and two Israeli nationals, including the group leader based in Israel, during a law enforcement operation that unfolded over five days between January 2022 and January 2023.
The scam artists would assume the identities of CEOs and approach financial department employees of targeted organizations, deceiving them into making payments to bank accounts controlled by the scammers. Business email compromise (BEC) scams often involve compromising the email accounts of the targeted organization to eavesdrop on communications and identify opportunities, such as a pending payment to a contractor.
Once the opportunity arises, the scammers send an email from the compromised account and ask the accounting department to modify the receiving bank account information at the last minute. Alternatively, the fraudsters may pose as a contractor and request an unexpected payment, or impersonate the CEO to direct the accountants to make an urgent transfer.
In December 2021, €300,000 was fraudulently diverted to a bank account in Hungary by attackers who impersonated the CEO of a large French metallurgical company. The scammers made another attempt to steal €500,000 a few days later, but the victim realized the fraud and reported it to the police, thwarting the transfer. In another case, the fraudsters targeted a real estate developer in Paris, posing as lawyers from a reputed accounting company in France.
The cases were connected by investigators from multiple European countries with the assistance of Europol, who uncovered the entire money laundering network used by the criminals in January 2022, marking the start of the crackdown operation.
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Author: Bill Toulas
