Police swoop on 300 email scammers
/v3-uk/news/1958530/police-swoop-300-email-scammers
22 Jul 2005, Iain Thomson , V3
Spanish police have carried out a mass raid on email scammers, arresting over 300 people at 166 locations.
The raids were part of a joint operation with the FBI and netted 2,000 mobile phones, 327 computers, 165 fax machines and €218,000 in cash.
The scammers are thought to have robbed over 20,000 victims in 45 countries including the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia and Japan.
"Anyone who has an email account will be all too familiar with email scams which claim they have won fortunes, or offer rewards for anyone prepared to help move money from far flung countries," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"The sad fact is that these scams are still managing to fool people, and organised criminal gangs are profiting from the naivety of internet users.
"These arrests represent a significant victory for the computer crime authorities, but the battle is far from over."
The scammers were sending emails claiming that the recipient had won an overseas lottery. When people responded they were asked to pay a series of commission and processing payments but did not receive any money.
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Do you agree?
el spammo
do you get spam in tapas?
Posted by frogger, 22 Jul 2005
Punish These Faceless Criminals Now !
I think they should prosecute these internet spammers/scammers to the fullest extent of the law and frankly, I'm very surprised there are not more raids and arrests of scum bag phishers and spammers which constantly hunt folks who use on line sites like eBay or apply for credit cards on line who get their personnal information "intercepted" by these insidious internet phisher bandits.
Perhaps a new web site should be setup to display names and pictures of these faceless individuals when they get caught ?
Posted by FilmMakerMe, 25 Jul 2005
Good job in getting those bad guys.
I agree totally with all of you and thanks to both the FBI and law enforcement in all countries for cracking down on these really bad guys. I just received an email like that and thanks to me searching on the web, I know that it is fake and it is good to know that the police is taking care of it. Please prosecute to the full extent of the law.
Thanks,
Ben
Posted by Bhagamshi Kannegundla, 12 Apr 2006