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The FBI announced that 65 people were arrested as part of an international law enforcement crackdown on business email compromise (BEC) attackers, which started in September and lasted three months.
The suspects in the U.S., Nigeria, South Africa, Canada and Cambodia are allegedly responsible for scamming over 500 U.S. victims and causing losses of over $51 million, according to the FBI, which funded and coordinated the operation.
“With actors behind BEC being responsible for hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars in fraud, this is quickly becoming a threat to national security that we can no longer ignore,” said Ronnie Tokazowski, principal threat advisor with Cofense. “I hope this serves as a wake-up call that BEC, as well as other types of phishing attacks, continues to be a problem plaguing every industry, vertical, and citizen across the globe.”
As part of the operation, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested Oluwasegun Baiyewu, 36, of Houston, Texas, and Leo Omorogieva Eghaghe, 39, of Lagos, Nigeria. The two are charged with being involved in an international money laundering conspiracy where money mules moved at least $4.5 million in fraud funds, obtained via BEC and other fraud schemes, from the U.S. to Nigeria. The conspiracy impacted a Puerto Rico-based renewable energy supplier.
Also arrested were Bright Osaghni, 41, and Osatohanmwen Oriakhi, 41, both of Toronto. The Toronto Police Service arrested the two, suspected of being connected with a BEC scam and check fraud scheme that impacted hundreds of victims in the U.S. and Canada, with attempted losses of $16 million. Another eight suspects arrested, all from Houston, Texas, were indicted on charges of laundering almost $900,000 of proceeds from a BEC scam.
“This group, and several others, are believed to have laundered almost $4.5 million over a period of two years, with the laundered funds consisting of payments they received from victim businesses all over the world,” according to the FBI in a Wednesday statement.
The operation comes after a number of previous law enforcement attempts to curb this type of activity through arrests, including one in 2018 that led to the arrest of 74 suspects worldwide and one in 2019 that resulted in 281 arrests.
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