London arrests after scammers with 70,000 victims seized

A WEBSITE used to fleece victims on an industrial scale has been smashed by police, with dozens of arrests made around the world including in London.

LabHost, a scammer site set up in 2021 by a criminal network in Britain, enabled users to set up phishing websites designed to trick victims into revealing personal information such as email addresses, passwords and bank details.

As many as 70,000 British victims were tricked by the scams, which obtained 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs globally. A Met Police-led investigation has led to 37 arrests across in London, Essex, and Manchester and Luton airports as well as abroad.

Criminals paid LabHost between £200 and £300 a month for membership so they could glean information to defraud people. Phishing is a form of scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information by masquerading as a legitimate person.

Dame Lynne Owens, deputy commissioner of the Met, said: “You are more likely to be a victim of fraud than any other crime. Online fraudsters think they can act with impunity. They believe they can hide behind digital identities and platforms such as LabHost and have absolute confidence these sites are impenetrable by policing.

“But this operation show how law enforcement worldwide can, and will, come together with one another to dismantle international fraud networks.

“Our approach is to be more precise and targeted with a clear focus on those enabling online fraud to be carried out on an international scale.”

Hackers were able to choose from existing sites or request their own dedicated pages replicating those of trusted brands including banks, healthcare agencies and postal services to con victims. LabHost even provided templates and an easy-to-follow tutorial allowing would-be fraudsters with limited IT knowledge to use the service.

Detectives have contacted up to 25,000 victims to tell them their data has been compromised.