Int’l cyber-crime gang dismantled with Turkey’s help

Razi Canikligil – ISTANBUL

An international phishing gang has been dismantled, and its 281 members have been arrested worldwide in 10 countries with the help of Turkish authorities and others

The operation, named “reWired,” was launched by the U.S. authorities about four months ago. During the operation cash amounting to $3.7 million was seized, the authorities have said. The FBI said that it had tied the gang’s activities to about $118 million in fraud.

Of the 218 suspects arrested, 167 were arrested in Nigeria, 74 in the United States, 18 in Turkey and 15 in Ghana. The others were arrested in France, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malesia and the United Kingdom.

Phishing is an attempt, usually via e-mail, to trick people into revealing sensitive information like usernames, passwords and credit card data by pretending to be a bank or some other legitimate entity. According to FBI experts, criminals’ phishing attempts have caused people to lose $26 billion in the last three years. 

The term “phishing” is a spin on the word fishing, because criminals are dangling a fake :lure” (the email that looks legitimate, as well as the website that looks legitimate) hoping users will “bite” by providing the information the criminals have requested – such as credit card numbers, account numbers, passwords, usernames and more.