Interpol – Financial Treason & Crime

Help Net Security, 02 June 2021

Amid an exponential increase in online fraud, an INTERPOL-coordinated operation codenamed HAECHI-I mobilized more than 40 specialized law enforcement officers across the Asia Pacific region. Over six months of coordinated intelligence collection and joint operations, police were able to intercept a total of $83 million in illicit funds transferred from victims to the perpetrators of cyber-enabled financial crime.

Officially concluding last week, Operation HAECHI-I focused particularly on five types of online financial crime: investment fraud, romance scams, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, online sextortion and voice phishing. Continue reading “Article: Operation HAECHI-I intercepts $83M in online financial crimes”

05/30/202105/31/2021

Article: Interpol intercepts $83 million fighting financial cyber crime

Article - Media, Publications

Interpol intercepts $83 million fighting financial cyber crime

Sergiu Gatlan, 30 May 2021

The Interpol (short for International Criminal Police Organisation) has intercepted $83 million belonging to victims of online financial crime from being transferred to the accounts of their attackers.

Over 40 law enforcement officers specialized in fighting cybercrime across the Asia Pacific region took part in the Interpol-coordinated Operation HAECHI-I spanning more than six months.!–more–>

Between September 2020 and March 2021, law enforcement focused on battling five types of online financial crimes: investment fraud, romance scams, money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, online sextortion, and voice phishing.

The stolen funds were blocked from getting into the scammers’ accounts following multiple joint operations and months of collecting intelligence on the attackers’ operations.

Throughout Operation HAECHI-I, Interpol agents opened over 1,400 investigations targeting cybercrime in the Asia Pacific region (i.e., Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), with 892 cases having already been solved and the rest still being investigated.

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05/28/2021

Article: Online crimes: S’pore police play key role in Interpol probe

Article - Media, Publications

Online crimes: S’pore police play key role in Interpol probe

Zaihan Mohamed Yusof, 28 May 2021

Singapore police played a crucial role that led to 585 arrests and US$83 million (S$110 million) intercepted in an Asia-Pacific probe coordinated by Interpol that sought to crack down on online financial crime.

Voice phishing, romance scams and money laundering linked to online gambling were the “top three types of online financial crimes in terms of the number of cases”, the world policing body told The Straits Times yesterday. In voice phishing ruses, callers often impersonate authority figures to scam victims into providing details that would see them lose their money. Continue reading “Article: Online crimes: S’pore police play key role in Interpol probe”

05/17/202105/18/2021

Article: Gang boss laundering money for drug cartels handed over to Poland

Article - Media, Publications

Gang boss laundering money for drug cartels handed over to Poland

thefirstnews, 17 May 2021

A Dutch court has agreed to hand over to Poland a gang boss laundering money for Colombian drug cartels.

Shalom Lior A. (name withheld), wanted on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), was the boss of a gang which had laundered PLN 1.4 billion (EUR 304 million) for Colombian drug cartels.

An investigation into an international organised crime gang laundering money coming from drug trafficking and internet crimes, so-called phishing, has been carried out by a Lower Silesian unit of the Department for Investigations of Organised Crime and Corruption at the National Prosecutor’s Office in Wroclaw (western Poland). Continue reading “Article: Gang boss laundering money for drug cartels handed over to Poland”