London Met Police infiltrate company that helped phishing cybercriminals

Clyde Hughes
·2 min read
UPI
epa05665361 London Metropolitan police officers in London, Britain, 08 December 2016. According to a British Watchdog police forces in England and Wales are carrying out sexual abuse. Some 436 allegations of abuse of power for sexual gain against 306 police officers has been reported. EPA/ANDY RAIN

April 18 (UPI) -- London's Metropolitan Police said on Thursday they have infiltrated a global online fraud service called LabHost, used by more than 2,000 cybercriminals to create fake websites to trick unwitting users out of money and valuable personal information.

Met Police said with the help of Europol and other agencies, they have been able to arrest 37 suspects since Sunday in London, Essex, and at airports in Manchester and Luton. It said searches were also conducted at 70 addresses around the world.

"As of Thursday, detectives have contacted up to 25,000 victims in the U.K. to tell them their data has been compromised," the Met Police said in a statement. "Each and every one of those cases has been reported to both Action Fraud and U.K. Finance and every victim has been given advice about the next steps and how to further protect their data."

LabHost helped cybercriminals create phishing websites designed to resemble reputable companies and existing real websites to trick victims into imputing their personal information like email addresses, passwords, bank details, etc. Cybercriminals would pay a fee to search already built fake websites of well-known companies that would allow them to go into operation quickly.

"Shortly after the platform was disrupted, 800 users received a message telling them we know who they are and what they've been doing," Met Police said. "We've shown them we know how much they paid to LabHost, how many different sites they've accessed and how many lines of data they've received.

"Many of these individuals will remain the focus of [our]investigation over the coming weeksd and months."

LabHost helped criminals take about 480,000 credit card numbers, 64,000 PINs and more than one million passwords used for websites and online services. Met Police said they are continuing to identify and contact as many victims as possible.

In February, Britain's National Crime Agency said it infiltrated and took control of the operations of the ransomware group LockBit. The agency was able to take position of its website on the dark web and used to expose details of the groups and keys to unlock victim websites.