An international investigation coordinated by Europol – with the participation of the Maltese Police, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Canada and the United States – on a series of attacks targeting high-profile people in United States, including famous online influencers, sports celebrities, musicians and families led to the arrest of ten people, including a Maltese national.
It is believed that the alleged criminals obtained illegal access to the victims’ phone numbers and took control their apps or accounts by changing passwords. This type of fraud is known as ‘sim swapping’ and involves criminals, who take over the victim’s phone number by disabling the mobile phone sim card and passing the number to a member of the criminal ring.
As a result, the alleged criminals stole more than one hundred million US dollars ($ 100 million) in crypto-currencies, as well as personal information of victims and illegally accessed the profiles of social media by even posting content and sending messages that appear to be being sent by the victims.
The involvement of the Maltese Police began in November 2019, after the Cyber Crime Section received information directly from the United States on suspicion that a Maltese person had allegedly hacked Instagram profiles of various celebrities and subsequently began blackmailing them. It turned out that the suspect was part of a group of people investigated by the US Secret Service.
On this information, the Cyber Crime Section together with the Department of Investigations of Financial Crimes (FCID) intensified investigations and in November 2019, the Maltese Police arrested the alleged suspect, a 17-year-old man.
From searches conducted in the residence where he lived, they found various items , including electronic devices, luxury clothing and other devices allegedly purchased from stolen credit cards.
