AN ONLINE fraud website used by cyber crooks to fleece victims on an industrial scale has been smashed by cops, it can be revealed today.
The UK-run scammer site LabHost provided tools for tricksters across the globe to set up phishing trawls luring computer users into revealing personal information and bank details.
Up to 70,000 people in Britain fell victim to the site’s scams and 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PIN’s were obtained from across the world.
A Met Police-led investigation – code-named Operation Stargrew – into the site has led to 37 arrests across the UK, in London, Essex, and Manchester and Luton airports, as well as abroad.
Criminals paid LabHost between £200 and £300 a month for membership so they could glean information to defraud people.
Hackers were able to choose from existing sites or request their own dedicated pages replicating those of trusted brands including banks, healthcare agencies and postal services to con victims.
LabHost even provided templates and an easy to follow tutorial allowing would-be fraudsters with limited IT knowledge to use the service.
At the end of the tutorial, a robotic voice told fraudsters: “Stay safe and good spamming.”
By the beginning of this year, more than 40,000 fraudulent sites had been created through LabHost and 2,000 users were registered.
The site has received just under £1 million in payments from criminal users since it was set up in 2021 by UK villains.
Detectives have contacted up to 25,000 victims in the UK to tell them their data has been compromised.
Details of the arrests had been kept secret for operational reasons.
Met deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens, said: “You are more likely to be a victim of fraud than any other crime.
“In addition to the financial impact, it undermines the public’s confidence in the tools and technology they need to use in daily life.
“Our collective approach should ensure suspects feel that same level of distrust in their own criminal environment.”
She added: “Online fraudsters think they can act with impunity.
“They believe they can hide behind digital identities and platforms such as LabHost and have absolute confidence these sites are impenetrable by policing.
“But this operation and others over the last year show how law enforcement worldwide can, and will, come together with one another and private sector partners to dismantle international fraud networks at source.
“Our approach is to be more precise and targeted with a clear focus on those enabling online fraud to be carried out on an international scale.”
Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said: “Fraud is a terrible crime that impacts victims both financially and psychologically, undermining our collective trust in others and the online services on which we all rely.
“Together with cyber crime, it makes up around 50 per cent of all crime in England and Wales.
“Recognising the scale and nature of the threat, law enforcement are working evermore closely together, both here and overseas, to target the fraudsters and the technology they are exploiting.
“This operation again demonstrates that UK law enforcement has the capability and intent to identify, disrupt and completely compromise criminal services that are targeting the UK on an industrial scale.”
