Cologne/Wiesbaden (dpa/lnw) – Three suspects are said to have defrauded bank customers of at least four million euros through so-called phishing emails. Investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) searched three properties in North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday at the request of the Cologne public prosecutor, as the BKA announced. A 24-year-old wanted by warrant was arrested. He and two other suspects were accused of commercial computer fraud and sabotage.
The men are said to have sent bank customers large amounts of emails that allegedly came from their house bank. According to previous investigations, the victims were tricked into clicking on a link that led to a fake bank website. There the customers should enter their login data and a current TAN number. Then the scammers, pretending to be bank employees, requested more TAN numbers from the unsuspecting customers and used them to withdraw money from the accounts.
The public prosecutor’s office in Verden (Aller) has already brought charges of computer fraud in 124 cases against the 24-year-old and a 40-year-old.
