PJ detained hackers who withdrew 1.5 million euros through a bank phishing scheme in Portugal

Four men and three women were detained as part of the judicial operation “Vera Cruz II”, which aimed to dismantle the national structure of the criminal organization involved in phishing Bank employee.

The Judicial Police (PJ), in collaboration with the Faro District Ministry and Interpol, executed 11 search warrants on Wednesday.

According to the statement of the joint venture, the criminal group caused damage to several citizens in the country in an amount exceeding 1,500,000 euros. He is strongly accused of crimes related to computer fraud, computer forgery, illegal access, money laundering and criminal association.

We are talking about computer crimes, the nature of which is called phishingin the shape of smiling This Vishing. The implementation of the criminal plan begins with the fact that clients of banking institutions, when accessing fake pages created for this purpose, end up being deceived by providing the necessary information so that illegitimate access to their accounts can subsequently be carried out by third parties. hackers.

According to the joint venture, the victims were contacted by a person who introduced himself as a security officer of a banking institution in order to confirm the illegal bank transfers made.

“Everything indicates that we are dealing with a type of organized and structured crime, consisting of several individuals performing different clearly defined functions, with the aim of misappropriating the financial assets of victims,” the statement said.

During the investigation, authorities seized various computer equipment used to commit crimes, the value of which is approximately 30 thousand euros, as well as bank accounts with a balance of more than 200 thousand euros.

The detainees will be present at the first judicial interrogation for the purpose of applying coercive measures.