he UK’s biggest ever fraud sting has brought down a phone number spoofing site used by criminals to scam thousands of victims out of millions of pounds.
Members of British law enforcement were part of a global operation to bring down ispoof.cc, a website described by police as an online fraud shop.
They worked with Dutch investigators who tapped the website’s servers in the Netherlands to secretly listen to phone calls.
At one point as many as 20 people every minute were being targeted by callers using technology bought from the site.
Criminals, who found out about the site from adverts posted on channels on encrypted messaging app Telegram, used it to buy technology that allowed them to mask their phone number.
This meant they could trick victims into thinking they were being contacted by their bank and persuade them to pass on personal details that allowed the fraudsters to steal cash.
One victim lost £3 million and the average loss among the 4,785 people who have reported being targeted to Action Fraud is £10,000.
There are thought to be many more potential victims.
Of 10 million fraudulent calls made, 40% were in the United States, 35% were in the UK and the rest were spread across a number of countries.
Around 70,000 UK phone numbers called by criminals who used the site will be alerted by the Metropolitan Police via text message on Thursday and Friday and asked to contact the force.
So far 120 arrests have been made – 103 in London and 17 outside the…
