LONDON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A fraud platform that tricked hundreds of thousands of victims has been "infiltrated and disrupted as the result of a worldwide operation" led by the Metropolitan Police (Met), the Met said.
A total of 37 suspects have been arrested worldwide, including in locations across the United Kingdom (UK) such as Luton and Manchester airports, Essex, and London.
LabHost, a website established in 2021 by a criminal cyber network, enabled the creation of "phishing" websites aimed at deceiving victims into revealing personal information such as email addresses, passwords, and bank details.
After the platform was disrupted, the existing information on the website has now been replaced with a notice stating that law enforcement has seized the services.
"You are more likely to be a victim of fraud than any other crime," said Dame Lynne Owens, deputy commissioner of the Met. "In addition to the financial impact, it undermines the public's confidence in the tools and technology they need to use in daily life."
Since its creation, LabHost has been used by more than 2,000 criminals to defraud victims internationally and has received just under 1 million British pounds (about 1.17 million U.S. dollars) in payments from criminal users.
According to the Met, nearly 70,000 individual UK victims have entered their details into one of LabHost's fraudulent sites. Globally, the platform has obtained 480,000 card numbers, 64,000 PIN numbers, as well as more than 1 million passwords used for online services.
Police noted that the total number of victims was likely to be "even higher than already established."
The two-year law enforcement operation was jointly carried out by the Met's Cyber Crime Unit, the National Crime Agency (NCA), City of London Police, and other international police forces.
Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said that fraud, together with cyber crime, makes up around 50 percent of all crime in England and Wales.
"Alongside law enforcement action, we also encourage everyone to protect themselves and their online accounts," he added.
As of Thursday, up to 25,000 victims in the UK have been contacted by the police, informing them that their data has been compromised. ■