Romanian police and prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) broke an international cybercrime group which is being investigated in 15 states.

Police officers and prosecutors, with support from Europol, conducted 16 searches on July 14, in Bucharest, Timisoara, Iasi, Craiova, Drobeta Turnu Severin, Oradea, and Fagaras. The searches targeted 12 people suspected of computer crime, according to a statement of the Romanian Police. They were all part of the international cybercrime group

Police officers from the National Crime Agency in the UK, as well as police forces from Timisoara, Bucuresti, Iasi, Craiova, Oradea, and Brasov, also took part in these searches. Simultaneous raids were carried out at the homes of group members in the US, Germany, UK, Brazil, and Australia. Following these searches, the authorities seized computerized systems used in criminal activity.

In the spring of 2013, the police found multiple users active on an online forum specialized in cybercrime activities. Some 12 Romanians allegedly had accounts on this forum, which they used to communicate, trade confidential data, and coordinate specific ways of implementing attacks on IT systems.

They’ve allegedly initiated and executed attacks against servers that hosted various internet sites, as well as fishing attacks against customers of online financial platforms, including one belonging to a German bank. The also bought credit card data belonging to American and British citizens and used it to illegally withdraw money via intermediaries in the UK and the US.

DIICOT prosecutors detained two suspects and asked for their preventive arrest.

The authorities will continue their investigation in this case.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com