Brazil’s Federal Police on Tuesday launched an operation to dismantle a criminal organization suspected of fraudulently transferring at least 3.6 million euros from bank accounts in Spain since 2019.
According to a statement released by the Brazilian police, as part of Operation Grandoreiro, which continues early this morning, federal police are executing five temporary arrest warrants and a further 13 search and arrest warrants in the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina, Pará, Goiás and Mato. Grosu.
Court orders to seize and freeze assets and valuables are also carried out in order to decapitalize the criminal structure and to return assets.
According to Caixa Bank, a Spanish financial institution cited by the Brazilian authorities, in addition to the damage caused amounting to 3.6 million euros, fraud attempts using the Brazilian bank’s “malware” (computer software with malicious intent) amounting to 110 million euros were detected. . .
The investigation began based on information sent by the Caixa bank, which established that the programmers and operators of the banking malware were located in Brazil.
Brazilian police detailed that the use of command and control programs allowed remote access to victims’ computers, allowing valuables to be stolen cybernetically.
access to the victims’ equipment was achieved by sending emails containing malicious messages (phishing) that led the victims to believe that it was official information, such as, for example, subpoenas, overdue invoices, invoices, etc. d.
The moment victims opened an attachment or clicked on a “link” to a malicious file, the program ran in the background and the victim’s computer was vulnerable to criminals.
The money was funneled into the accounts of gang members who “borrowed” their bank accounts to move illicit funds.
The Federal Police added that the investigation was carried out with the support of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and with international cooperation from the Spanish National Police, which provided important information to identify the perpetrators.
Members of the group are suspected of crimes of a criminal association, qualified theft through cyber fraud, computer device hacking and money laundering.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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