Germany Arrests 18 Suspects In International Operations On Online Fraud

JAKARTA - German authorities on Wednesday announced the arrest of 18 people in international operations targeting online fraud and money laundering networks involving payment service providers from Germany.

According to the German Federal Criminal Police (Bundekcriminalamt/BKA) and the prosecutor's office, the perpetrators are suspected of carrying out fraudulent operations between 2016 and 2021, using credit card data belonging to around 4.3 million individuals from 193 countries. Losses due to this action are estimated at more than 300 million euros (approximately IDR 5.3 trillion).

The suspects are suspected of disbursing funds via subscriptions on fake websites that mimic streaming, online dating, and entertainment services. To launch their action, they also managed to penetrate four large payment service providers from Germany to process the transaction, although the authorities did not name the companies.

In an official statement released late Tuesday, authorities revealed that they had conducted searches in a number of countries, including Germany, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the United States, and Cyprus.

Prosecutors stated that the investigation was focused on 44 suspects in Germany and other countries. They consist of members of a network of frauds, employees of payment companies, as well as digital crime service providers or known as crime-as-a-services.

This operation, called Operation Chargeback, is the result of international cooperation to dismantle cross-border cybercrime networks that utilize global payment systems to commit massive fraud.