German Police Bust Europe's 'Largest' Scam Call Center (dw.com) 24
Plumpaquatsch writes: Investigators teamed up with colleagues from the Balkans and Lebanon in raids set up by months of intense surveillance. Authorities say the operation thwarted over 10 million euro in damages and led to 21 arrests.
Dubbed 'Operation Pandora,' the sting began in Germany in December 2023, after a suspicious bank teller contacted police when a 76-year-old customer from Freiburg sought to hurriedly withdraw 120,000 euro ($128,232) from her savings account to hand over to a fake police officer. When real police investigators tracked the internet-based telephone number that had been used to lure the woman, they discovered a veritable goldmine.
Rather than shutting down the number, authorities instead went on the offensive, setting up their own call center in which hundreds of officers from Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin and Saxony worked around the clock monitoring some 1.3 million calls in real time, as the number from the initial scam was tied to an entire network of fraud call centers. Police were able to trace and record data from the calls, as well as warn potential victims of what was in fact happening, in turn winning valuable time to put together the April 18 sting.
Police say their efforts allowed them to thwart some 10 million euro in damages in roughly 6,000 cases of attempted fraud.
Dubbed 'Operation Pandora,' the sting began in Germany in December 2023, after a suspicious bank teller contacted police when a 76-year-old customer from Freiburg sought to hurriedly withdraw 120,000 euro ($128,232) from her savings account to hand over to a fake police officer. When real police investigators tracked the internet-based telephone number that had been used to lure the woman, they discovered a veritable goldmine.
Rather than shutting down the number, authorities instead went on the offensive, setting up their own call center in which hundreds of officers from Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin and Saxony worked around the clock monitoring some 1.3 million calls in real time, as the number from the initial scam was tied to an entire network of fraud call centers. Police were able to trace and record data from the calls, as well as warn potential victims of what was in fact happening, in turn winning valuable time to put together the April 18 sting.
Police say their efforts allowed them to thwart some 10 million euro in damages in roughly 6,000 cases of attempted fraud.
All numbers should be traceable (Score:2)
Don't take me wrong, I am a big supporter of privacy and anonymity but I can't help thinking that all phone numbers should be traceable and assigned either to an individual or a company. In other words, every phone number should be tied to a verified identity, either individual or a company. If everyone had to be verified world-wide, cold callers and scams would become a thing of the past. Everyone would be accountable for their actions, and we could block unwanted companies once and only once and be done w
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
If everyone had to be verified world-wide, cold callers and scams would become a thing of the past. Everyone would be accountable for their actions, and we could block unwanted companies once and only once and be done with them forever.
And what imaginary global jurisdiction do you assume hovers over all 190+ countries on this planet, to give any one entity the ability to hold anyone else accountable?
You seem to have forgotten how much foreign countries don't give a flying fuck about your laws and needs, and how that has exacerbated this very issue.
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Very simple. Don't comply? Don't make international calls to my country. Which in turn means you're not gonna make any kind of business deals with anyone here.
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Isn't that like the phone version of web tracking cookies?
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Isn't that like the phone version of web tracking cookies?
Nothing like it. Looking at a web page is equivalent to looking at an advertising hoarding or in a shop window. And the cookies the web site gives you is not just between you and the website, they are readable by every site you visit afterwards. Some cookies help the website work, but most are for spying.
OTOH, someone phoning you up to sell something (or scam) is like the shopkeeper coming out and standing in your way to make their pitch even if you didn't even glance in their window. And the ability
Re: (Score:2)
What about outbound calls *you* make? I think that's a better correlation to tracking cookies.
gold mine (Score:1)
What is a "veritable gold mine"? How do I get one verited?
Re:gold mine (Score:5, Informative)
Dictionaries. They're a thing [cambridge.org]. You might want to reference one if you have questions.
My garden had become a veritable jungle by the time I came back from holiday.
The normally sober menswear department is set to become a veritable kaleidoscope of colour this season.
Re: (Score:2)
Good start. (Score:2, Informative)
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Nevertheless, the vast majority of scam calls do come from India where the government and police there tolerate it, and the scammers get paid training in telephone manner etc in the numerous legitimate out-sourced call centres of Western companies.
What (Score:1)
Hundreds of cops for 4 months for €10M?
Re:What (Score:4)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, imagine that! Police protecting everyone in society no matter of the scale of the crime
The scale of losses through scamming is huge, a significant fraction of western nations' GDP (and of gains of India's for example, which is why India does nothing about it). Yes, this case is a tip of an iceberg, but it is time that police took it more seriously rather than it remaining a saloon bar joke.
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scam calls (Score:1)
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You're getting soft. I'd have a far more interesting fate for them.
Money Trail (Score:3)
Call in a beekeeper (Score:2)
And older people should have an approval process requiring a family member when spending more than a couple of hundred $$$.
The sting (Score:2)
> which hundreds of officers from Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin and Saxony worked around the clock monitoring some 1.3 million calls in real time
Did they play Scott Joplin in the background?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Send in the BeeKeeper (Score:1)