At one point as many as 20 people every minute were being targeted by callers using technology bought from the site – with one victim losing £3m.
The UK’s biggest-ever fraud sting has brought down a phone number spoofing site used by criminals to scam thousands of victims out of millions of pounds.
Members of British law enforcement were part of a global operation to take down ispoof.cc – a website described by police as an online fraud shop.
They worked with Dutch law enforcement who managed to tap the website’s servers in the Netherlands to secretly listen to phone calls.
At one point as many as 20 people every minute were being targeted by callers using technology bought from the site, which is said to have made more than £3m profit.
Criminals used the site to buy technology that allowed them to mask their phone number, after finding out about it from adverts posted on Telegram channels.
This allowed them to trick victims into thinking they were being contacted by their bank and persuade them to pass on personal details that allowed the fraudsters to steal cash.
One victim lost £3m, with the average loss among the 4,785 people who reported being targeted to Action Fraud at £10,000. Police believe up to £48m has been stolen.
