For two months, a man in his 20s has been internationally wanted in a phishing case. On Tuesday, he was arrested in London, following cooperation between British and Norwegian police. He is now charged with serious fraud, the police inform news. – We have worked on several leads leading up to this arrest. Several electronic traces pointed to countries such as England, Denmark and Turkey, says Rune Skjold, section leader for economics and special investigations in the Oslo Police. Rune Skjold, section leader for financial and special investigations in the Oslo Police. Here during a press conference in 2019. Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB In February, news wrote about a woman in her 70s who was exposed to phishing. She was then called by a man who pretended to be the police. The woman was defrauded of half a million kroner. It is in this case that the man in his 20s has now been arrested and charged. The police believe that over 40 people are exposed to fraud. Phishing Phishing is a form of social manipulation where an attacker attempts to trick someone into performing an action. Manipulation attempts can, for example, take place by opening an e-mail attachment, clicking on a link in an SMS or paying a fake bill. The attacker often appears as a real business. These can be public agencies, financial institutions or shops. Attempts at manipulation can be linked to fear, trust, temptation, time pressure as well as fixed or emerging events such as Christmas, time for tax payments, pandemic, outbreak of war etc. Via links, the attacker can request usernames, codes and passwords, and further use these for example to steal confidential information. Read more about phishing and how to protect yourself from it at nettvett.no. Laundered without knowing it In the video above you see a woman helping to launder money, without her being aware of it. The money has the criminal network stolen by someone else. The woman says that she was approached by a man who asked for help to withdraw money. She knew him, and therefore said yes. The woman wants to tell about what happened to warn others from ending up in the same situation. The man in the video is not the man who was arrested in London yesterday. He has not yet been charged in the case either. news anonymises the woman, but knows her identity. – He said he had a cousin who needed money and asked if I had a bank card. He said I should get money from Vipps which I could then withdraw to him, she says. When she learned that it was a total of NOK 25,300, she became skeptical. – I wanted to send the money back, but then he got stressed and fussy. So I agreed to take them out, she says. Three months later, the police came to the door of the home of the woman and her partner. The woman says she finds the whole thing unpleasant to think about. – I willingly told everything to the police. It’s unpleasant to think back on, but there’s not much more I can do. The woman has not been charged with anything and is a witness in the case. Over 40 victims In February, another man, also in his 20s, was arrested in the case. He is now charged with complicity in serious fraud and serious money laundering. – Together, the two form a kind of breakaway faction from a larger, Danish network that does the same thing, explains Skjold. According to the police, the group began their fraudulent activities in the spring of 2021. Since then, they are said to have defrauded more than 40 people for between NOK 5 and 6 million. The police also believe there are large undercover figures. – In terms of scope, this is in the upper echelon of what we have seen in recent years, says Rune Skjold. Morten Kjensli is defending the man. He says the extradition process between England and Norway has been initiated. – Beyond that, I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to my client, he says to news. The police have now arrested a second man in a major phishing case. Photo: Christian Ziegler Remme / news Pretended to be police The man who is now arrested has Danish and Dutch citizenship. He has largely operated from abroad. – He has been in Denmark and England and broke into Norwegian online banks from there, says Skjold. According to the police, he got the information he needed to be able to do that from the man who was arrested in February. – He pretended to be the police on the phone and thus tricked the victims into giving up sensitive information. The criminal network has primarily targeted older people. They are not alone in this: Eight charged Eight people have now been charged in the case. The police believe that the two men who have now been arrested have played key roles. Six people are suspected of having played roles as money mules or launderers. The number of online frauds has increased sharply in recent years, says Skjold. – The old-fashioned frauds have moved online. In addition, the number has increased – it may seem that it may be easier to carry out fraud of this kind, he says. The police say they want to tell about the arrest to send a warning to other criminals in the same industry. – There is no safe haven in Norway for carrying out this type of crime, says Skjold. The risk of being caught for this type of crime has long been low. – But now that we have started to deal with these cases and are working up a familiarity with methods and the environment, the risk of being caught is significantly greater in the future, says the section leader.
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– Arrested key person in phishing case – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
