MADRID, Feb 13 (Reuters) – A network of online fraudsters
who masqueraded as European crime-fighting agency Europol and
collected millions of euros in fake fines has been broken up –
by Europol.
The group, which worked across 30 countries over the past
two years, paralysed computers with a virus and left messages
purporting to be from organisations like Europol and the police,
saying users could only regain access to their machines if they
paid a fine.
“It’s impossible to know for sure how many citizens were
affected by this, but we estimate hundreds of thousands of
Europeans were,” Europol Director Rob Wainwright said at a news
conference in Madrid on Wednesday.
“If we take into account that the average fine was 100 euros
($130) and 3 percent…paid it, then the estimated damage is
millions of euros,” he said. Wainwright added his own name had
been used to trick Internet users.
The virus was known as “Ransomware” and had up to 48
different mutations to overcome anti-virus software.
The leader of the fraud network, a 27-year-old Russian
citizen, was arrested in December in the United Arab Emirates,
Spain’s secretary of state for security, Francisco Martinez,
said at the news conference.
Spanish police arrested 10 members of the group last week on
the country’s southern Costa del Sol, a popular tourist
destination, Martinez said.
Six of the detainees were Russians, two were Ukrainian and
two from Georgia. These members mostly took care of money
laundering and sending cash electronically to Russia, while the
head of the group was responsible for developing the virus.
($1 = 0.7442 euros)
(Reporting by Cristina Fuentes-Cantillana; Writing by Clare
Kane; Editing by Pravin Char)
