June 23, (THEWILL) – The Police in France and Belgium on Friday, said they had smashed a criminal ring that used fake court summonses accusing people of watching child pornography to extort at least €3.5 million.
The phishing scam involved false emails from police, judges or institutions such as Europol, threatening victims with prosecution unless they paid a “fine”.
Head of one of the special French police units, Colonel Thomas Andreu, said they arrested 18 people in France and one in Belgium in an operation on Monday, with all but three of the suspects ordered to appear in court on fraud charges.
According to the Police, one of the victims, who had been stung twice by the criminal gang, committed suicide, and six others may have also potentially killed themselves.
“We thought that the fraud was being run by one central structure. However, it turned out to be several little teams, which were not linked,” said Andreu, adding that the sums extracted from the victims ranged from less than €5,000 to up to €200,000.
The scam began at the start of 2021, leading the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office to open an investigation. By June 2022 about 400 complaints relating to the scam had been made to authorities.
Commissioner Christophe Durand of the French OCLCTIC anti-cybercrime unit, said the “victims had suffered real distress.”
Some of the money extorted from the men, who were aged on average around 60, was spent in France, but most were sent to Ivory Coast and other African countries.
The man who was hit twice was first made to pay €5,978 before the criminals asked him for a further €7,480. “Feeling powerless and trapped, he took his own life,” the police said.
The suspects are aged between 20 and 50
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