Berlin, Nov 5, (dpa/GNA) – German authorities, on Wednesday carried out an international operation, targeting alleged fraud and money laundering networks spanning three continents.
More than 250 officers were deployed in eight German states, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and other agencies said.
Eighteen arrest warrants were executed on Tuesday, both in Germany and abroad.
The 44 suspects, 36 men and eight women aged between the ages of 32 and 74, are accused of using credit card information from victims in 193 countries, to create over 19 million fake subscriptions via professionally run shell websites.
The scam involved over 4 million credit card holders and more than 500 shell companies, the authorities said.
The total damage from 2016 to 2021 is estimated at more than €300 million ($344 million).
According to prosecutors, the five-year international investigation began in the western German town of Montabaur, where one suspect resided or operated a company.
Many of the fake websites involved alleged porn, dating, and streaming services, which were used solely to charge victims’ credit cards, the BKA said. Monthly charges were deliberately small, around 50 euros or dollars, and listed under vague descriptions, making them easy for cardholders to overlook or misidentify.
The suspects are alleged to have compromised four major German payment service providers to process payments, with one provider allegedly targeted with software designed for money laundering.
The international raids included searches in Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the United States and Cyprus.
The 44 suspects included members of three international fraud networks, former executives of German payment providers, intermediaries and an independent risk manager.
The investigations were triggered by the German Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which identified suspicious patterns across multiple reports.
Credit card data was allegedly obtained via phishing attacks, in which criminals impersonate trusted entities to steal sensitive information.
The complex, previously covert probe is ongoing, with more than 90 mutual legal assistance requests in other countries. The frauds, which have been halted since 2021, were code-named “Operation Chargeback” by investigators, referring to the reversal of a card payment when a customer disputes a fraudulent charge.
Harald Kruse, a public prosecutor in the German city of Koblenz, said of the scale of the fraud: “The sheer numbers in this case are staggering.”
He noted that the investigation extended even to countries such as North Korea, adding, “I didn’t even know they had credit cards there.”
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, called the operation “an important blow against an international money laundering network.”
GNA