Cyber cops smash massive fraud site that scammed 70,000 victims
A SECRETIVE website that defrauded victims on an industrial scale has been shut down by police.
Up to 70,000 UK victims were tricked by the LabHost site’s phishing scams, which obtained 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs globally.
A total of 37 suspects have been arrested around the world, including at Manchester and Luton airports and in
London and Essex. Police chiefs said it was a ‘precise and targeted’ operation.
Set up in 2021, LabHost had more than 2,000 criminal subscribers who used it to trick people into revealing passwords, bank details and email addresses. After a tutorial, a voice told would-be fraudsters: ‘Stay safe and good spamming.’
By the beginning of 2024, more than 40,000 scamming sites had been created and LabHost had received £1million in payments from criminal users.
Operation Stargrew detectives have contacted up to 25,000 people to tell them their data has been compromised. Police received crucial intelligence about the platform’s activity from the Cyber Defence Alliance, a group of British-based banks and law enforcement agencies.
Met Police deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens said: ‘Online fraudsters believe they can hide behind platforms such as LabHost.
‘But this operation shows how law enforcement worldwide can, and will, come together to dismantle international fraud networks.’