It looks like the sort of meeting room you might find in startups all over the world: diffuse lighting from windows down one wall, alongside a giant poster cityscape of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, with the Manhattan skyline towering behind it.
The difference in this case is that that the computer workstations around the room are there for a different sort of “entrepreneurial” venture, and the room is empty not because no one showed up for work, but because the “employees” were in the process of being arrested.
This picture comes from the Ukraine Cyber Police, who raided a fraudulent call centre just before New Year, where they say the three founders of the scam, plus 37 “staff”, were busted for allegedly operating a large-scale banking fraud.
Playbook + gift of gab = scam
You’re probably familiar with the scamming script they’re said to have used, and you probably know friends or family who have been pestered by scammers of this sort.
Some of you may even have acquaintances who were ripped off this way, because these scammers are well versed in gaining the trust of their victims.
Typically, the scammers try to convince you that your bank account is under attack from fraudsters (technically, that part is true – the caller is the attacker), and patiently offer to help you “secure” your account and “recover” lost or at-risk funds.
The scammers aim to turn people’s general awareness of banking scams into an excuse, a reason, a…
