Kharkiv law-enforcement authorities disrupted the activities of a group of criminals who gained access to victims’ accounts while posing as staff of the state treasury and banks.
According to данным Национальной полиции Украины, the organizer of the scheme is a resident of Zaporizhzhia.
The criminals purchased client databases on dark-web platforms. The workers of the ‘fraudulent call centre’ posed as employees of the enforcement service, the state treasury or banking institutions and gained access to account details and CVV codes.
The funds obtained fraudulently were transferred to e-wallets, cards of individuals under the control of the perpetrators, and into cryptocurrencies, which were subsequently converted into cash, according to a police statement.
According to the police, the monthly turnover from the criminals’ activities amounted to 3 million hryvnias (about $112,000 at the time of writing). The victims were residents of Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
During searches, investigators seized phones, SIM cards and bank cards.
The National Police said that authorities are currently considering detaining the scheme’s organiser and his accomplices, and informing them of suspicions of fraud.
Earlier in Kharkiv last year, authorities uncovered a network of ‘call centres’ that siphoned money from citizens’ accounts under the guise of bank employees.
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