By Ere-ebi Agedah
The international law enforcement agency, Interpol says it has arrested a cybercrime group known for Business Email Compromise, BEC scams aimed at stealing money from companies around the world.
Interpol confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, stating that the cybercrime unit of Nigeria’s national police arrested a 37-year-old Nigerian man suspected to be the leader of a BEC group known as SilverTerrier to cybersecurity researchers.
According to Interpol, the unidentified suspect is alleged to have run a transnational cybercrime syndicate that launched mass phishing campaigns and business email compromise schemes targeting companies and individual victims.
Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42, one of the cybersecurity companies that assisted in the investigation, posted a photo of the suspect but did not identify him. Three other companies Trend Micro, Group-IB and CyberTOOLBELT also collaborated with law enforcement, authorities said.
The operation is the latest in a series of counter-BEC actions that most recently included the apprehension of 11 suspected members of the SilverTerrier gang in January. That sting was called Operation Falcon II. The latest is labeled Operation Delilah.
Assistant Director of cybercrime operations at Interpol Bernardo Pillot while throwing light on the activities of global cybercrime explained that they come in many forms but with a convincing story about why they need your money.
“Specifically, in this case, the SilverTerrier actor fled Nigeria in 2021 when authorities initially attempted to apprehend him, months later, in March 2022, he attempted to return home and was quickly identified and detained as he attempted to re-enter Nigeria.
“This case underlines both the global nature of cybercrime and the commitment required to deliver a successful arrest through a global to regional operational approach in combating cybercrime.
‘‘U.S., Australian and Canadian agencies assisted Nigerian authorities and Interpol in the investigation,” he said.
The suspected leader’s activity traces back to 2015, Unit 42 said, and he has social media links to at least three other SilverTerrier suspects arrested in 2021. Group-IB, which has been tracking the SilverTerrier under the name TMT since 2019, said it believed the group compromised more than 500,000 companies in more than 150 countries by 2020.
BEC scams typically happen when attackers take over email accounts at a company and then use them to coax fraudulent financial transactions out of unwitting employees. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said such scams were worth at least $2.3 billion in 2021.
