European Authorities Dismantle Two SIM Hijacking Gangs

European authorities managed to crack down on two cybercrime gangs responsible for stealing millions by employing SIM hijacking.


Also referred to as SIM swapping, this identity theft technique is used to take over a victim’s mobile phone number to then intercept their phone calls and SMS messages and attempt to access their bank account.


To perform SIM hijacking, hackers trick the victim’s wireless operator into swapping the mobile phone number to a SIM card the attackers control. This allows the hackers to receive any banking one-time-passwords that are sent to the victim.


Using online banking credentials obtained through other techniques, and the hijacked SIM, the attackers can then authorize fraudulent transactions to steal funds from the victim’s account.


Europol announced on Friday that two cybercriminal groups engaged in SIM hijacking were dismantled after tens of individuals were arrested in Spain and Romania.


In Spain, 12 suspects believed to have stolen over €3 million ($3.3 million) were arrested in Benidorm, Granada, and Valladolid.


Aged 22 to 52, the individuals were of Italian, Romanian, Colombian, and Spanish nationality. They supposedly launched over 100 attacks, stealing between €6,000 and €137,000 per attack.


Using banking Trojans or other techniques, the hackers managed to obtain online banking credentials from the victims and then presented fake documents to the victim’s mobile service provider to obtain a duplicate of their SIM card.


This allowed them to receive second factor authentication codes from banks and authorize fraudulent money transfers to the accounts of money mules, all within a one- to two-hour period of time, to ensure the victim didn’t have time to rea ..

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