Last month, Latvian and Lithuanian police – in conjunction with Europol – coordinated a raid on 3 call centers responsible for an international effort to defraud victims worldwide.
No matter the scam or attack, the goal is to separate the victim from their money. In the case of the scam call centers, over 200 staff posed as traders attempting to get victims on the other end of a call to “invest” in bitcoin, commodities, and foreign currencies – all, of which, were fake. According to Europol’s press release on the arrests, the scam group netted a “profit” of over £3 million per month!!
On March 24th and 25th, law enforcement from multiple countries and agencies swarmed down on the 3 call centers, arresting a total of 108 members of the group, as well as seized cash, bank accounts, luxury vehicles, and tens of thousands in cryptocurrency.
This crackdown on scammers using voice calling (aka vishing) as the medium is a reminder that social engineering works over any medium. And, while the focus of this groups scam was to defraud its’ victims, it could just as well have been the call center involved in the recent Amazon phishing scams that required a phone call as part of the scam, or – in an ironic twist – pretend to be Europol themselves.
Organizations need to protect themselves from scams that seek to defraud businesses rather than individuals. Users whose roles include access to the organization’s finances should undergo continual Security Awareness Training to maintain a state of vigilance no matter whether the medium used is the phone, the web, or email.
