Reporting by Makis Synodinos

A multi-member criminal organization had made fraud… a profession which is involved in more than 670 cases of fraud, committed and attemptedwith the total damage of the victims exceeding the 6 million euros.

According to ELAS, the gang was coordinated by a central nucleus of about 25 peopleleading and key members, while their action was at least assisted 130 auxiliary regional members, of which some had permanent and others occasional action.

The gang’s nets have reportedly fallen from ordinary citizens and accountants, to financial directors of large companies according to ELAS, while the frauds were done with a computer using the “Phishing” method.

The members of the criminal organization approached the victims through telephone communication, where they once presented themselves as interested in the provision of services or prospective buyers of products they found in online advertisements and sometimes as employees of companies or public services (DEDDIE, Tax Office, Municipal employees, accountants, etc.), regarding the refund of a sum of money, the granting of allowances such as “marketpass”, “fuelpass”, “powerpass”, etc.

Then, initially by verbal manipulation and then by means of fraudulent hyperlinks (phishing links) that largely resembled those of banking institutions, they managed to steal the login credentials (username & password). and gain illegal access to victims’ e-banking accounts.

They then proceeded to transfer the entire amount of money available to the bank accounts of conscripts (moneymules)while other members proceeded to withdraw the withdrawn sums of money from various ATMs throughout the territory, which were hierarchically delivered to the leading members of the organization.

In fact, where it was not possible to transfer the money to bank accounts the members of the organization either activated the debit cards of the victims, in immaterial form, in the digital wallets (e-wallets) of business mobile phones of the organization, or issued new cards, using which they then made purchases through contactless transactionsfrom stores selling mainly technology products, which other members of the organization then resold.

After a months-long investigation by the Cybercrime Prosecution, a large scale operation was organized codenamed ‘APATE’ (Operation Against Phishing Attacks Targeting E-banking) during which 24 key members were arrested, (17 men and 7 women), including 3 leading members of the organization.

155 people are still included in the file that was formed, members of the criminal organization, while at the same time examining the degree of participation and involvement for more than 1,200 bank account holders of the so-called “moneymules”, who facilitated the activity of the criminal organization.