The international law enforcement operation codenamed "Operation HAECHIIV" arrested 3,500 suspects of various cybercrimes and seized US$300 million in illegal proceeds. South Korean authorities led Operation HAECHI and worked with law enforcement agencies in 34 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong and India.
The most recent operation took place between July and December 2023 and targeted threat actors engaged in voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, money laundering related to illegal online gambling, business email compromise, and e-commerce fraud.
In addition, Interpol’s financial intelligence mechanism I-GRIP flagged and frozen 82,112 bank accounts in 34 countries related to various cybercrime and fraud activities.
Of the amount seized, $199 million involved hard currency, while the remaining $101 million was equivalent to the value of 367 digital/virtual assets, such as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) related to cybercrime.
Interpol's Stephen Kavanagh said: "The $300 million seized is a staggering figure that clearly illustrates the incentives behind today's explosive growth in transnational organized crime. This massive accumulation of illicit wealth poses a serious threat to global security and undermines the economic stability of countries around the world."
One of the key arrests in the operation involved an online gambling criminal in Manila who South Korean police had been hunting for more than two years.
One trend that emerged from the arrests of HAECHI is that of digital investment scams and NFT investment platforms, which after operating for a period of time are "undone", that is, all investment funds are stolen, official websites and social media accounts are deleted, and then disappear.
Another emerging scam tool is artificial intelligence and deepfake tools, which are used to generate synthetic content that appears to be realistic to the target, or even the voices of people close to the target.
UK authorities involved in HAECHI have reported several cases of fraudsters using artificial intelligence to conduct impersonation scams, online sextortion and investment fraud.
Unfortunately, AI technology is giving cybercriminals an opportunity at this stage, but INTERPOL continues to improve its tactics to keep up with new trends and respond to threats.
Compared with HAECHIIII, which was carried out between June and November 2022, Operation HAECHIIV resulted in a 260% increase in arrests.
Interpol and its partners arrested 975 suspects and froze $130 million during the operation.