Italian Financial Police arrested more than 10 people suspected of being part of an international criminal organization. The group allegedly laundered over 2.5 million euro from online scams and faces laundering and fraud charges, according to a Europol release.
The take down involved cooperation between the Italian Police, Europol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Dozens of companies were affected by payment diversion schemes in which attackers hijacked a company's communications and swapped out payment recipients' information for that of their own accounts.
Businesses inadvertently transferred money to the criminals. Hundreds of individuals were also affected by romance scams where the fraudster created fake profiles on online dating sites and convinced people to send them money.
Investigators said the group relied on a network of other scammers to help withdraw money from around the world.
