Following months of investigation, Dutch and Belgian police authorities have arrested 12 members of an organized crime ring operating a voice-phishing operation.
In the scam, Belgian Internet users received an initial email that asked for personal information. During the second step, criminals in the Netherlands would call the victims via telephone to collect additional personal information. Millions of dollars were stolen from Belgian victims during the scam, authorities note.
"This case is another example of organized cybercriminals setting up teams to act like legitimate representatives of established businesses, who then lure innocent victims into disclosing personal information," said Troels Oerting, head of the European Cybercrime Center (EC3), noted in a press statement. "The criminals misuse this harvested information to steal the victims' identities or money."