By RTL/ANP News··Modified:
Right to left
For months, police were able to exploit the fraudulent iSpoof service, which provided the authorities with a wealth of information. The Forensic Aid Service servers were operating in Almere, where two young men were arrested. The Interpol investigation also led to the arrest of more than a hundred people in England.
Criminals can use software from a fraudulent iSpoof service to disguise their own phone number and pretend to be an official entity, such as a bank or insurance agency.
In this way, scammers can trick people and eventually steal their data and money. The scammers paid for the service in Bitcoin and thought they could remain anonymous.
Hundreds of thousands of victims
It is estimated that around 200,000 people have been scammed with the help of iSpoof. Tens of millions of euros have been scammed from people.
Of the 10 million calls made using iSpoof, 40 percent were in the United States and 35 percent in the United Kingdom. The rest were made in a number of other European countries and Australia.
Authorities were able to hack the iSpoof website, which at its peak had 59,000 users. The service had been available since December 2020, and after more than six months, police in London began investigating. The Netherlands, the United States and Ukraine helped.
“very intense”
Dutch police wiretapped the service for three months. Officers were thus able to hear what the criminals were saying during often intense conversations with potential victims. Police confirmed after a report from the Almere that two men aged 19 and 22 were arrested in Almere in early November in connection with the investigation. number and Norwegian Refugee Council.
A third Dutch suspect was arrested today, a police spokesman told RTL News. This was also someone who used iSpoof. Police expect to make more arrests, possibly dozens of people.
A Dutch investigator told the Norwegian Refugee Council that three months of listening was enough. Then the police wanted the scam to stop quickly. “It’s very intense when you hear how much people are suffering,” the investigator says of listening to the conversations.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’ll go all the way. We now have insight into such a server, and it’s a great opportunity for us to put them all together,” the investigator continues.
The prime suspect is Teejay Fletcher, who is alleged to be the mastermind behind iSpoof. According to police, he was living a lavish lifestyle and was arrested in London earlier this month.
Anonymity is a “false promise”
Starting today, the police will distribute an announcement via Telegram, among other things, to warn scammers: services like these claim to guarantee anonymity, but they don’t always do so.
