Arrests made in online banking scam

Two individuals in Switzerland and another two in San Francisco have been arrested for their alleged part in a multi-billion dollar internet banking fraud, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has revealed.

The Paris-based ICC, which monitors banking fraud, said that the criminals used fake bank guarantees to secure fees amounting to about $3.9bn.

According to the ICC's Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB), which carried out investigations with the support of the Cybercrime Unit, the fraudsters had published false European banking guarantees on at least 29 different websites to lure potential clients into investing in projects and finance schemes.

No details of the arrests were provided, but ICC officials said they believe that the suspects involved in the scheme were not its masterminds. The ICC explained that it passes information about scams to the relevant authorities and has informed the US Securities and Exchange Commission about the case.

According to the CCB, the web addresses gave the impression that the scam sites were run by either Euroclear Bank, the international clearing system for the settlement of transactions in securities and Eurobonds, or Bloomberg, the financial information services provider.

The bank guarantees were confirmed to be fraudulent and both Euroclear and Bloomberg were alerted to the intellectual property breaches.

Jon Merrett, assistant director of the CCB, said the group was informed that advance fees of hundreds of thousands of dollars were paid for the issue of these fraudulent guarantees.

"We can monitor the internet for any breaches of a company's intellectual property and work with the relevant bodies to eliminate any fraudulent hyperlinks or websites," he said.

Merrett also pointed out that by shutting down the fraudulent sites in cases like this "we are not only protecting investors from scams, but also helping companies such as Bloomberg to maintain their reputation".

See also:

Online rogue traders face crackdown

Trading standards officers get £500k to spot scams  11 Jul 2002

Switzerland's UBS turns to British AI

Big cheese looks to combat money laundering  25 Mar 2002

SEC 'scam' teaches investors a lesson

It's Gullible's Travels as fake website gets 150,000 hits  31 Jan 2002

DTI report highlights security failings

Around 60 per cent of UK businesses have suffered a security breach over the last two years, according to the latest survey from the Department of Trade and Industry.  26 Apr 2001

Government unleashes hi-tech super sleuths

This morning saw the launch of the UK's first dedicated cybercrime squad, committed to tackling hi-tech crime on the internet.  18 Apr 2001

Banks to spend big on integration

European financial service companies will spend $67bn on banking technology by 2004, integrating legacy infrastructure with internet and wireless operations.  09 Apr 2001

Lloyds TSB woos business users with PKI

Lloyds TSB is to offer smart card technology to business users this summer, and could extend the scheme to online customers within a year. The initiative will be the highest-profile use of public key infrastructure technology seen in the UK.  02 Mar 2001

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