OP 09 November, 2024 - 02:27 PM
Two organized groups were operating in Belarus, stealing money from users of the largest classifieds platform. More than 2,700 criminal cases have been opened on the facts of their activities, which have been combined into one proceeding. The details of the high-profile investigation were told on the air of the program "Causes and Investigation" on "Radio Minsk" by the official representative of the Investigative Committee Alexander Sukhodolsky, the correspondent of the agency "Minsk-Novosti" reports.
The main tool for committing crimes on the Internet is phishing links, when clicking on which the user is misled. As a result, he reveals confidential data to fraudsters, and they steal money from the card account. This is exactly how cyber fraudsters operated on "Kufar", significantly tarnishing the reputation of the online classifieds platform.
To understand the scale of the crimes committed by online swindlers, let's start with the numbers. Members of the organized criminal group committed about 20 thousand thefts. The damage caused by computer fraudsters amounts to millions of rubles. The criminal scam group included more than 1,300 participants. All of them observed conspiracy measures and communicated anonymously, exchanging information in closed chats. The Telegram messenger served as a medium for communication, access to criminal tools, distribution of funds between participants and their training. Investigators found out that the scammers committed up to 30 thefts from card accounts of Belarusian citizens per day. More than 2,700 criminal cases were opened on such facts, which were combined into one proceeding.
Even before the arrest of the criminal group members, the Investigative Committee employees gained access to the scam group's software products. They studied in detail the mechanism of committing crimes, and at the same time modified the software. This made it impossible to further steal money, which reduced the activities of the organized criminal group to almost zero.
In addition, the Investigative Committee employees established a complex structure of the criminal group. It should be noted that the activities of the cyber scammers were organized quite professionally. Not all organizations have such a staff as the scammers came up with. Judge for yourself what roles the scammers played:
• "topic starter" - the head of an organized group, founders (co-founders) of fraudulent schemes;
• administrators - persons with access to the control panel of Internet resources used in criminal activities;
• "coders" - persons developing software used in criminal activities;
• "SIM activators" - persons assisting members of the criminal group in activating accounts in WhatsApp and Viber messengers for their subsequent use in communicating with persons for subsequent theft;
• "droppers" - persons searching for third-party citizens to open card accounts on them, which are then used to commit theft;
• "vbivers" — individuals who perform unauthorized login to a compromised user card account in order to steal and transfer money to accounts and e-wallets controlled by an organized group;
• "workers" — individuals who correspond or talk with kufar.by users and convince them, under various far-fetched pretexts, to follow a phishing link to compromise their payment details.
The members of the scam group are physically located and reside in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland and other countries. All of them are young people aged 17 to 30. Many carried out their criminal activities simultaneously as part of several different criminal groups that specialize in different methods of online theft.
The Main Directorate for Digital Development of the Preliminary Investigation of the Investigative Committee has completed an investigation into one of the leaders of the largest transnational scam community operating in Belarus.
As investigators found out, the organized crime group was created in 2021. It included more than 700 participants from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and other Russian-speaking countries.
The scam group specialized in stealing money from card accounts of users of online trading platforms using phishing Internet resources imitating such platforms, delivery services, payment services.
From 2021 to 2023, the group's members stole at least 1.7 million rubles from Belarusian citizens more than 6,000 times using phishing.
Cyber investigators got on the trail of the scam community in August 2022. Thanks to the use of new developments and experimental methods, the identities of the management were established, the criminal tools used by the group and the crimes committed were recorded.
At the initial stage, the investigation was focused on suppressing the criminal activity of the organized group, which continues to commit hundreds of thefts every month. To do this, it was necessary to identify and detain one of the key figures in the group - a software developer. Such software allowed for the automated commission of thefts. Among cyber fraudsters, such a member of the group is called a "coder". He used all sorts of technical tricks for his conspiracy. For example, he never made personal visual contact with other members of the group - he used only online communication and fictitious data. The investigators only had his online pseudonym.
From the bits of information left by the "coder" on the Internet, they managed to compile his "digital portrait" and establish his identity. The key figure of the transnational scam community turned out to be a 17-year-old resident of Minsk.
Using bits of information left by the "coder" on the Internet, it was possible to compile his "digital portrait" and establish his identity. The key figure of the transnational scam community turned out to be a 17-year-old Minsk resident.
Investigators, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, planned and implemented a unique operation to detain the leader of the scammers. The multi-level system of protection against exposure that he had built turned out to be useless. Investigators and the police managed to neutralize the cyber fraudster in his apartment and gain access to all digital evidence. During the search, software for committing crimes and databases with information about the criminal activities of the groups were found and seized.
For his work, the young man received 5% of the amount of all the money stolen by the scam community from Belarusian citizens. In the year and a half of participation in the criminal activities of the group before his arrest, he earned more than 90,000 rubles.
The teenager admitted his guilt in participating in the activities of a transnational scam community, and spoke in detail about the members of the group and the crimes they had committed. Subsequently, during several dozen operations in various regions of the country, as well as in Russia, another 34 members of the transnational scam community were detained, including some of the leaders.
Almost all of them have already been convicted. According to the court's verdict, depending on their role in the criminal scheme, they were sentenced to 5 to 8 years of imprisonment.
[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEmEiKU6DAU]
The main tool for committing crimes on the Internet is phishing links, when clicking on which the user is misled. As a result, he reveals confidential data to fraudsters, and they steal money from the card account. This is exactly how cyber fraudsters operated on "Kufar", significantly tarnishing the reputation of the online classifieds platform.
To understand the scale of the crimes committed by online swindlers, let's start with the numbers. Members of the organized criminal group committed about 20 thousand thefts. The damage caused by computer fraudsters amounts to millions of rubles. The criminal scam group included more than 1,300 participants. All of them observed conspiracy measures and communicated anonymously, exchanging information in closed chats. The Telegram messenger served as a medium for communication, access to criminal tools, distribution of funds between participants and their training. Investigators found out that the scammers committed up to 30 thefts from card accounts of Belarusian citizens per day. More than 2,700 criminal cases were opened on such facts, which were combined into one proceeding.
Even before the arrest of the criminal group members, the Investigative Committee employees gained access to the scam group's software products. They studied in detail the mechanism of committing crimes, and at the same time modified the software. This made it impossible to further steal money, which reduced the activities of the organized criminal group to almost zero.
In addition, the Investigative Committee employees established a complex structure of the criminal group. It should be noted that the activities of the cyber scammers were organized quite professionally. Not all organizations have such a staff as the scammers came up with. Judge for yourself what roles the scammers played:
• "topic starter" - the head of an organized group, founders (co-founders) of fraudulent schemes;
• administrators - persons with access to the control panel of Internet resources used in criminal activities;
• "coders" - persons developing software used in criminal activities;
• "SIM activators" - persons assisting members of the criminal group in activating accounts in WhatsApp and Viber messengers for their subsequent use in communicating with persons for subsequent theft;
• "droppers" - persons searching for third-party citizens to open card accounts on them, which are then used to commit theft;
• "vbivers" — individuals who perform unauthorized login to a compromised user card account in order to steal and transfer money to accounts and e-wallets controlled by an organized group;
• "workers" — individuals who correspond or talk with kufar.by users and convince them, under various far-fetched pretexts, to follow a phishing link to compromise their payment details.
The members of the scam group are physically located and reside in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland and other countries. All of them are young people aged 17 to 30. Many carried out their criminal activities simultaneously as part of several different criminal groups that specialize in different methods of online theft.
The Main Directorate for Digital Development of the Preliminary Investigation of the Investigative Committee has completed an investigation into one of the leaders of the largest transnational scam community operating in Belarus.
As investigators found out, the organized crime group was created in 2021. It included more than 700 participants from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and other Russian-speaking countries.
The scam group specialized in stealing money from card accounts of users of online trading platforms using phishing Internet resources imitating such platforms, delivery services, payment services.
From 2021 to 2023, the group's members stole at least 1.7 million rubles from Belarusian citizens more than 6,000 times using phishing.
Cyber investigators got on the trail of the scam community in August 2022. Thanks to the use of new developments and experimental methods, the identities of the management were established, the criminal tools used by the group and the crimes committed were recorded.
At the initial stage, the investigation was focused on suppressing the criminal activity of the organized group, which continues to commit hundreds of thefts every month. To do this, it was necessary to identify and detain one of the key figures in the group - a software developer. Such software allowed for the automated commission of thefts. Among cyber fraudsters, such a member of the group is called a "coder". He used all sorts of technical tricks for his conspiracy. For example, he never made personal visual contact with other members of the group - he used only online communication and fictitious data. The investigators only had his online pseudonym.
From the bits of information left by the "coder" on the Internet, they managed to compile his "digital portrait" and establish his identity. The key figure of the transnational scam community turned out to be a 17-year-old resident of Minsk.
Using bits of information left by the "coder" on the Internet, it was possible to compile his "digital portrait" and establish his identity. The key figure of the transnational scam community turned out to be a 17-year-old Minsk resident.
Investigators, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, planned and implemented a unique operation to detain the leader of the scammers. The multi-level system of protection against exposure that he had built turned out to be useless. Investigators and the police managed to neutralize the cyber fraudster in his apartment and gain access to all digital evidence. During the search, software for committing crimes and databases with information about the criminal activities of the groups were found and seized.
For his work, the young man received 5% of the amount of all the money stolen by the scam community from Belarusian citizens. In the year and a half of participation in the criminal activities of the group before his arrest, he earned more than 90,000 rubles.
The teenager admitted his guilt in participating in the activities of a transnational scam community, and spoke in detail about the members of the group and the crimes they had committed. Subsequently, during several dozen operations in various regions of the country, as well as in Russia, another 34 members of the transnational scam community were detained, including some of the leaders.
Almost all of them have already been convicted. According to the court's verdict, depending on their role in the criminal scheme, they were sentenced to 5 to 8 years of imprisonment.
[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEmEiKU6DAU]