Spanning four months from June to September 2021, a massive, internationally coordinated Interpol operation, codenamed HAECHI-II, has resulted in the arrest of more than 1’000 individuals and interception of $27M of illicit money.
The operation was conducted by special units from 20 countries and special jurisdictions such as Macao and Hong Kong. The Interpol shut down 2’350 bank accounts and investigators were able to close more than 1,660 cases linked to online financial crime.
New Criminal Modus Operandi
A significant outcome of the operation was the identification of new methods used by criminals and enabling the agency to test the newly developed global stop-payment mechanism – the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol (ARRP).
The operation has shown that the organized online crime groups have sophisticated their methods. Rather than low-stakes scamming attempts, conspirators are reported to have attempted complicated schemes to funnel funds across global locations. Facilitated communications between law enforcement agencies have proven to be crucial in freezing and returning the funds extracted by criminals while ARRP has timely, and successfully intercepted the funnelling of illicit money.
Criminals using Pop Culture trends
Another significant detail unearthed during HAECHI-II was the cyber criminals’ using of pop culture trends to infiltrate into victims’ mobile devices. A notice from Colombia has been about a malware infected mobile app using the name and branding of the popular Netflix show “Squid Game”. The application was used by criminals to hack into phones and subscribe to premium services without the consent of the victim.
