Russian connection in Turkish cybercrime investigation

A large gang of phishers has been disbanded in Turkey following an investigation by the authorities in the Turkish city of Izmir. A total of 17 people have been arrested by the police in raids at several addresses, but according to local authorities the roots of this crime syndicate go much deeper and into Russia.

The Turkish investigation started a couple of months ago, following an influx of complaints from members of the public regarding irregularities with their online bank accounts. A 20-strong dedicated IT crimes group from the Izmir Organized Crime Bureau was assembled to work on the case and quickly uncovered a network of criminals involved in the scheme. The gang used stolen bank account details and passwords to siphon off funds, but left the IP addresses of the machines employed to log on to the banking system. These IP addresses were traced to a total of 17 gang members, who were all detained in simultaneous raids last Tuesday. The police found computer equipment, fake passports, credit cards and unregistered weapons at what is believed to have been the headquarters of the gang.

According to sources from the Izmir Organized Crime Bureau, this has been one of the largest cybercrime investigations ever carried out in Turkey. The number of victims is as yet unknown, but over the past several weeks the gang managed to withdraw between $330,000 and $500,000 from around a thousand accounts. The gang received details of these accounts from three cybercriminals in Russia, who in turn claimed a 10 % commission from the stolen funds. Turkish police now wants the three Russian phishers in connection with their investigation, and the authorities in Izmir have already engaged the cooperation of Interpol in their efforts to pursue them.