Police in three European countries have raided dozens of homes and offices linked to suspected cybercriminals, including the alleged operators of a secret forum used to trade illicit wares, officials said Wednesday. <\/p>\n
More than 1,000 investigators searched over 120 premises across Germany late Tuesday in connection with crimenetwork.biz, a so-called darknet site that is allegedly used to buy and sell stolen goods, drugs and medication. <\/p>\n
The darknet is a part of the internet hosted within an encrypted network and accessible only through specialized anonymity-providing tools, most notably the Tor Browser. <\/p>\n
German federal police said in a statement that the raids followed a four-month criminal probe during which investigators sifted through over a million posts and private messages exchanged by some 260 members of the darknet forum. <\/p>\n
It said that 153 members of the forum were identified, including 11 people considered to be part of the \"leadership level\" who now face charges of forming a criminal organization. <\/p>\n
In a separate set of raids Tuesday, police in Germany, Latvia and Britain on Tuesday targeted 10 premises and 12 people suspected of stealing money from online banking customers in Germany. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors in Frankfurt said the suspects used so-called phishing attacks to gain access to victims' passwords and then obtained duplicate SIM cards for their cellphones. <\/p>\n
Using those SIM cards they were able to receive text messages from the victims' bank containing an authorization code needed for money transfers. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the main suspect is a 34-year-old Belarusian citizen who was arrested in Frankfurt in February. A 27-year-old dual citizen of Kazakhstan and Germany was arrested Tuesday, as was a 47-year-old Moldovan citizen living in London. <\/p>\n
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Read this article: Police in three European countries have raided dozens of homes and offices linked to suspected cybercriminals, including the alleged operators of a secret forum used to trade illicit wares, officials said Wednesday. More than 1,000 investigators searched over 120 premises across Germany late Tuesday in connection with crimenetwork.biz, a so-called darknet site that is allegedly used to buy and sell stolen goods, drugs and medication. Continue reading
\nEurope-wide raids against cybercrime networks - ABC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"