August 2, 2024 at 02:47AM
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) shut down Russian Coms, a call-spoofing service with hundreds of thousands of victims. Four Brits have been arrested in connection with the operation. The service helped criminals disguise their identities and swindle victims of millions. Global law enforcement efforts are targeting additional users, with an estimated 170,000 victims in the UK alone.
The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has taken down Russian Coms, a call-spoofing service used to scam victims across more than 100 countries. At least four suspects, all British nationals, have been arrested, and additional users are being targeted in a global law enforcement effort. It is estimated that approximately 170,000 people in the UK are victims of this scam.
Russian Coms, established in 2021, enabled criminals to conceal their identities and pose as legitimate callers from banks, telecom companies, and other organizations. By using the spoofing service, criminals tricked victims into transferring money by falsely claiming fraudulent activity on their accounts, resulting in losses exceeding £9,400 per victim.
New information obtained after 2021 reveals that Russian Coms users made over 1.3 million calls to 500,000 unique UK phone numbers, affecting victims in 107 countries, including the UK, US, New Zealand, Norway, France, and the Bahamas. The NCA highlighted that fraud accounts for about 40 percent of all crime against individuals in England and Wales, with more than 80 percent likely to be technology-enabled.
In response, the NCA, along with its partners in the UK and overseas, is pursuing both the criminals and the technology they exploit to mitigate the significant harm caused to victims worldwide.