In a coordinated effort by Europol with participation of international law enforcement agencies, 130 individuals were detained for possessing airline tickets purchased with stolen credit card data.
The operation was organized at 140 airports across five continents (Europe, Asia, Australia, America and Africa), in 49 countries.
The action took place from June 16 to 17.
According to statistics, this criminal activity caused massive damages to airline companies. The losses are estimated at about 1 million euros, not to mention the losses from the stolen cards.
“Airline ticket fraud is a complex and global phenomenon that raises a number of security issues. Suppressing the organized crime groups operating in this sector requires communication between airlines, banks, card payment systems, IATA and law enforcement authorities at an international level,” Europol said in a statement .
Law enforcement agencies had three coordination centers, at Europol in The Hague, Interpol in Singapore, and AMERIPOL in Bogota. It should be noted that there was additional assistance from Canadian and American authorities.
Together with representatives from the private sector, such as airlines, major card companies (American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Visa Inc. and Visa Europe), 222 fraudulent transactions were recorded, and most of them (74%) were in Europe.
Out of the 130 individuals questioned by the police, 101 of them were detained in Europe, 11 in Asia, 10 in Latin America, 2 in the USA, and 6 in Canada.
It appears that the arrested people were engaged in different criminal endeavors, including trafficking of human beings or drugs, smuggling goods, fraud, cybercrime, illegal immigration, and terrorism.
Wil van Gemert, Europol’s Deputy Director of Operations, said it was the result of multiple actions with “meticulous planning between Europol, law enforcement authorities, prosecution and border control agencies, airlines and credit card companies. It was a perfect example of how our combined forces can identify organised crime gangs involved in large-scale fraud and other offences.”
One of the positive outcomes was that airlines can now work better with card issuing banks to fight against card fraud
