Criminology In The News | Police Bust Global Cyber Gang

The organisers of a major internet phishing scam have been arrested in a global operation to shut down an ‘industrial scale’ fraud operation targeting over 70,000 UK citizens. 37 people were arrested and found to have nearly half a million card numbers. 24 of the accused were taken into custody having been arrested at Luton and Manchester airport.

The scheme was run through a website called LabHost, which allowed criminals to access data that had been obtained by the accused and was made available to criminals at a cost of up to £300 a month in attempts to use the data collected, including phone numbers and email addresses, to trick unsuspecting victims into several different phishing scams.

Alongside the arrests, police seized the email addresses of 800 criminals who had been using the service and intended to send personalised video messages warning the criminals that they were being monitored. This strategy has been developed using behavioural psychology techniques.

It is estimated that 25,000 of the suspected 75,000 victims of the fraudsters are known, with efforts underway to trace other victims and the police have urged people to come forward with information if they have been a victim.

Find out more by looking at the article below from the BBC (18/0402024) and answer the questions below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-...

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS!

1. How would you categorise the crime committed according to the different categories in AC 1.1 of Unit 1?
2. The investigation into the activities of the organised criminals was discovered by the Cyber Defence Alliance. How might you describe their role in the process of reporting the crime?
3. Why might uncovering the extent of the crime have taken a longer period of time than other investigations?
4. The National Crime Agency were involved in the case. What part of the Criminal Justice System do they belong to? Why might they be using behaviour psychology tactics to inform criminals they know of their actions?
5. Who, according to the article, where most likely to be victims of the criminals? Who would you expect to fall victim to these types of crime?
6. Why might the police be using behaviour psychology tactics to inform criminals they know of their actions? Which criminological approach can this be linked to?