By Tom Sims
WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) -Eighteen people have been arrested following a German-led internationally coordinated investigation of online fraud and money laundering networks that used payment service providers, German authorities said on Wednesday.
A total of 44 suspects, including six former employees of large German payment service providers, are believed to have taken part in the scheme, which involved stealing the credit card details of some 4.3 million people across 193 countries, German police and prosecutors said.
The suspects partly used phishing to steal individuals’ data and then created subscriptions for recurring bills on fake porn and dating services, all with support from payment firms, racking up more than 300 million euros in damages, they said.
The sprawling nature of the case highlights the blurring intersection between the worlds of cybercrime and white-collar crime, the officials told a press conference in the western German town of Wiesbaden.
“What initially looked like small debits turned out to be a global business model with professional structures,” said Daniel Thelesklaf, the head of Germany’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
“We can see what financial crime looks like in 2025. It is international, it is digital, and it is collaborative.”
The officials gave no details about those arrested.
Officials had kept their investigation under wraps until late Tuesday, when they disclosed a coordinated search of buildings in Germany, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the U.S. and Cyprus.
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said the suspects may have “compromised four major German payment service providers in order to process payments”. Authorities have not named the four firms concerned.
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
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