Photograph: Jim Larrison/flickr" width="460" height="276" class="gu-image" /> Police have arrested 118 people at 84 airports around the world as part of a global investigation into plane tickets paid for with stolen or fake credit card details.
Troels Oerting, director of Europol’s European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3), told the Guardian that many of those arrested were linked to other forms of crime, including robbery, shoplifting, illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
The operation, co-ordinated by EC3, brought together 49 law enforcement agencies from around the world, numerous banks, 64 airlines and the International Air Transport Association to share intelligence on fraudulent transactions. Interpol in Singapore and Ameripol in Bogota took charge of operations in non-European destinations.
Officers were waiting at 84 global airports to pick up those who had used stolen credit card numbers to buy their tickets, while Europol, reported 281 suspicious transactions.
“We have again proven that we have ‘upgraded’ to version 2.0 our ability to work smooth less together across borders and between law enforcement and private parties in order to prevent and fight cybercrime disguised – this time – as identity theft and credit card fraud,” Oerting said in a statement sent to media.
Oertling could not say the total value of the fraud, but told the Guardian that the highest profile cases had been targeted in this operation.
Criminals can easily get their hands on stolen credit card data from a range of different markets online. The likes of rescator.cc and kaddafi.hk, octavian.su and cheapdumps.org are filled with stolen credit card details every day, most of which will have been stolen by hackers.
Rescator was home to much of the data stolen from US retail giant Target this time last year, as noted by the security reporter Brian Krebs.
On Friday Rescator was still showing details of a single credit card from the UK selling for just $19. Cards from various big name banks, including HSBC, RBS and Nationwide, are all for sale on the site.
Mark James, security specialist at ESET, said criminals are extremely organised and will find and use stolen card details very quickly.
“Thieves will often test the card by making small under the radar purchases or even small donations to charities to see if the transaction goes through,” he said. “If successful they will often make as many purchases as possible until the card is maxed or stopped.”
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