Seven Arrested in Major Europol Cybercrime-as-a-Service Takedown

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An international law-enforcement action has dismantled a sophisticated criminal network offering cybercrime-as-a-service, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals, according to the EU’s law enforcement agency Europol.

Dubbed operation “SIMCARTEL”, the action targeted a group that enabled criminals across Europe to carry out fraud, extortion, and other serious criminal offenses by providing access to SIM boxes that help users obscure their identities to evade detection. Law enforcement seized approximately 1,200 SIM-box devices and more than 40,000 active SIM cards, as well as taking down five servers used to power the illicit service.

The network is reported to have facilitated at least 3,200 individual fraud incidents with a total loss of many millions of euros. Europol said:

The financial loss in Austria alone amounts to around €4.5 million ($5.2 million), as well as €420,000 in Latvia ($489,000).

Europol said the investigation was carried out by law enforcement authorities from Austria, Estonia, Finland, and Latvia, with support from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3).

Europol also noted that one of the main suspects behind the now-dismantled criminal structure had already been under investigation in Estonia for arson and extortion. 

While this network has been disrupted, Europol earlier wrote in its Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) 2024 that: “The criminal market for ransomware, malware and phishing-as-a-service is growing and resembles the dynamics of the legitimate industry, with cybercriminals publicising their services via the dark web.”