Rotterdam police arrest AI scammers over €400k thefts

Rotterdam police have apprehended a pair of individuals who orchestrated a sophisticated phishing scam, defrauding over 170 victims of nearly €400,000. The criminals established a fraudulent banking assistance service, preying on customers via telephone calls, tricking them into downloading an app capable of accessing the NFC chip on their bank card.

On October 4, the duo, aged 23 and 25, were apprehended and subsequently appeared in court. A magistrate extended their detainment for 90 days. To make the scam more convincing, the scammers utilized AI-generated voices to read messages instructing victims to verify if Google Pay was installed on their phones. Upon discovering its absence, victims were directed to press 1, connecting them directly to the fake helpdesk.

The victims were then instructed to install the app and allow their card to be held against their phone, enabling the scammers to extract their details. Simultaneously, accomplices attempted to infiltrate the accounts using the card's PIN. Ruben van Well, head of the Rotterdam cybercrime team, noted that victims spanned ages from their twenties to eighties, with the victims originating from across the nation.

Police seized significant amounts of cryptocurrency following the arrests and rendered the fake app and server inoperative. Van Well cautioned that further arrests may yet transpire.