The Interpol revealed that the Nigerian police have arrested and detained 11 internet scammers, including alleged members of the cybercriminal group known as SilverTerrier.
The law enforcement stated that the suspects committed a Business Email Compromise (BEC), wherein threat actors utilise phishing emails or malicious email accounts to deceive companies or government sectors into making payments to wrong bank accounts.
The arrest of the cybercriminals occurred last year, between December 13 and December 22, as part of the police operation called ‘Operation Falcon II.’
Interpol then added that following a forensic investigation of the data retrieved from computers and phones collected during house searches, they stated that the 11 alleged members of SilverTerrier were affiliated to attacks on approximately 50,000 targets. Moreover, one of the arrested suspects owned over 800,000 victims’ domain credentials on his computer.
Another suspect had breached accounts, monitored private conversations inside 16 companies and their clients, and was observed diverting funds to accounts connected to SilverTerrier.
Officials then said that a third suspect was also affiliated with BEC campaigns across the entire western hemisphere of Africa, such as Nigeria, Ghana, and The Gambia. It is very peculiar for a BEC attack to target African countries since most campaigns are directed against western companies in the United States.
From Operation Falcon up to Operation Falcon II, the police have monitored several cybercriminal groups like the SilverTerrier gang.
In November 2020, an operation resulted in the arrest of three suspects who were confirmed members of the TMT cybercriminal group.
Furthermore, Interpol has worked closely with the Nigerian authorities to arrest 18 more suspects in March last year, who they also believed to have cooperated in a broad scaled BEC attacks.
Based on the FBI’s 2020 cybercrime report, BEC scam campaigns ranked as the top source of monetary losses in the cybercriminal landscape for three consecutive years. Companies should be cautious in completing important transactions to be protected against these existing scams.
