Elena Gocmen Rueda
AN international criminal network of more than 100,000 members dedicated to cybercrimes and phishing scans has been uncovered with links to Spain.
Raids on properties in Cadiz and Malaga have led to the arrests of 11 people thought to be responsible for at least 2,500 criminal acts against victims all over the world, Spain’s Guardia Civil said in a statement on Tuesday.
The raids were part of a coordinated effort by different national police forces to dismantle an international organisation thought to include more than 100,000 members committing cyber crimes including phishing and carding – which both scam victims into sharing banking data by pretending to be legitimate sources.
In the wake of the arrests, Guardia Civil issued a list of recommendations to avoid falling victim to such a scam.
- Be suspicious of emails that appear to come from known services requesting new data due to technical problems or similar.
- Check the information provided by the online shop about who they are, their fiscal address and user data, as well as permitted forms of payment. .
- Be suspicious if you notice grammatical errors, as it’s not common for big companies to make these mistakes.
- Check that the links inserted in the email are real and match with what it is supposed to be .
- Lastly, be suspicious when emails from official sites come from general addresses (hotmail or gmail for example ) as legitimate companies usually have their own domains.
If you are a victim, you should inform your banking service right away and report it to the Guardia Civil immediately.
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