The Spanish National Police arrested eight alleged members who robbed targets bank accounts in a series of SIM swapping attacks.
- The cybercriminals collected the victims' personal data and bank details via malicious SMS.
- The operation resulted in the arrest of seven people in Barcelona and one in Seville.
The Spanish National Police arrested eight alleged members who robbed targets bank accounts in a series of SIM swapping attacks.
The fraudsters conduct SIM swapping attacks to take control of the victim’s phone numbers tricking the mobile operator employees into porting them to SIMs under the control of the crooks.
Once hijacked a SIM, the attackers can steal cryptocurrencies, money and personal data, including contacts synced with online accounts. The threat actors could hijack social media accounts and bypass 2FA services based on SMS used by online services, including financial one's.
According to the investigation by Spanish authorities, the cybercriminals sent malicious messages in which they posed as their banks and obtained the victims' data and bank accounts.
Employing phishing crooks could trick the telephone store employees into issuing a duplicate of SIM cards. Once they got the SIM cards, they could bypass SMS-based 2FA used to access bank accounts and steal money.
The first SIM swapping attack attributed to this gang occurred in March 2021, when police received two complaints about fraudulent transactions in different geographical locations in Spain.
When the crooks laundered the defrauded money through bank transfers and digital instant payment platforms, the investigators could still trace them.
The operation resulted in the arrest of seven people in Barcelona and one in Seville. The police also blocked the bank accounts of the suspects.
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