The SSU jointly with the National Police and the law enforcement agencies of the Czech Republic have dismantled a transnational criminal group.

The criminals specialized in stealing money from bank accounts of EU citizens using phishing links in popular online stores.

According to intelligence, since February 2022 the fraudsters have defrauded over 1,000 EU residents for a total of UAH 160 mln (about EUR 3.8 mln).

As a result of operational and investigative activities, the organizer of the group and his accomplice were detained in Ukraine.

17 other members of the network, including citizens of Belarus, were detained in the EU.

According to the investigation, the organizer is a Kyiv resident, a specialist in IT. He was looking for accomplices using his connections and in the Darknet.

To implement the scheme, the members of the group posted ads on online trading platforms about ‘sales’ of popular goods at an ‘attractive’ price.

To place an order, customers were offered to follow a phishing link where they entered their bank card details.

The malware then ‘read’ the personal data. In this way, fraudsters gained access to the customers’ bank cards and stole money from them.

The money was subsequently transferred to crypto wallets of the organizers of the scheme.

During 35 searches at the suspects’ offices and homes in Kyiv, Kharkiv, as well as in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia regions, the SSU found:

• SIM cards, including those of European mobile operators, phones, computers and data storage devices with evidence of the crime;
• bank cards used for ‘cashing out’ stolen electronic money.

The organizer of the fraudulent scheme and his accomplice detained in Ukraine have been served notices of suspicion under Articles of the CCU:

• 255.1, 255.2 (creation, management of a criminal community or criminal organization and participation in it);
• 27.3, 27.5, 28.4, 190.4 of the CCU (organization of misappropriation of property by deception (fraud) committed repeatedly, through unlawful operations with the use of electronic computers, as part of a criminal organization).

The court has chosen custody without bail as a measure of restraint for the suspects. The investigation is ongoing.

The SSU and the National Police carried out the operational and investigative activities under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.