Spain's Guardia Civil has this Thursday claimed to have broken up an important cybercriminal gang that carried out phishing attacks in the country. A total of six people were detained in the province of Malaga in the south of Spain following a year-long investigation carried out by the authorities in Navarre, a province in the northeast of the country.
The gang is thought to have been led by a 19-year-old youth of Moroccan origin. At least five of the gang's members have been named as Moroccans, while the sixth detainee, a 21-year-old woman, originally came from Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa. The leader of the gang is a well-known hacker who has been involved in the business since he was 12 years old. Spanish authorities believe him to be one of the most eminent hackers in Europe at the moment.
Operation "Siluro", as Spanish investigators named it, began after a complaint registered in Elizondo, Navarre, in April this year. From then on the police began monitoring phishing campaigns in Spain and looking for similarities that could lead them to identify the perpertators. Having collected the necessary evidence they carried out organised raids in the Malaga region, finding at least 500 fake bankcards and a lot of counterfeit European passports in the process. The group is known to have collected personal banking details on at least 20,000 persons and held a database of 200,000 emails that was used in their phishing campaigns. Another peculiar method was to offer a half-price online mobile phone account charging service. Users attracted by the offer entered their bank details, which were then collected for later use in fraud operations. In order to launder stolen money they employed cybermules who transferred funds for a cut of the sum, as well as other methods such as making online purchases. In order to hide their trail the group used hacked computers and also hijacked unprotected wi-fi connections.
Spanish authorities have so far declined to quantify the damages caused by this gang, but the figure is thought to be "extremely significant". Vicente Ripa, a representative of Navarre's regional government tasked with explaining the operation to the press, called it an amazing success, citing the nature of the crime and the size of the gang that was apprehended. This is not the only success Spanish cybercrime fighters have enjoyed this year: Spain's National Police dismantled another sizeable criminal group last September, detaining 23 people in the three coastal regions of Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia.
