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Russian Coms was available as a handset disguised as a smartphone and marketed through social channels such as Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram.
Authorities in the UK have arrested three individuals suspected of involvement in Russian Coms, a criminal group that is said to have stolen tens of millions from victims around the world using a special spoofing handset or a web app.
In a statement, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said that Russian Coms was shut down this week after an investigation found that an estimated 170,000 people across the UK were victims of the group.
According to the NCA, the group was responsible for more than 1.3m calls made by users who bought their services. These calls were made to around 500,000 UK phone numbers, with losses averaging nearly £10,000 per victim.
Two of the three people arrested this week are believed to have been involved in creating the platform which allowed criminals to hide their identity by appearing to call from pre-selected numbers – usually belonging to banks, phone companies or law enforcement agencies – in order to gain the victims’ trust before stealing their personal details and money.
Russian Coms was available as a handset disguised as a smartphone and marketed through social channels such as Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram. It also came with a web app and included features such as unlimited minutes, hold music, encryption and even voice-changing services.
Overall, calls were made to individuals in 107 countries around the world, including the US, New Zealand, Norway, France and the Bahamas.
Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said that criminals are increasingly using technology to carry out fraud and other crimes “on an industrial scale”.
“The NCA and our partners here in the UK and overseas are going after both the criminals and the technology they exploit. Whilst this use of technology, which can be called ‘crime as a service’, promises anonymity, unbeknown to the criminal users, the services also store the users’ data, so we can identify who they are and how they operate,” Searle said.
“Users of Russian Coms, and all those tempted to try out similar services, should know that these services cannot be trusted.”
The NCA said that law enforcement partners in the UK and overseas are being supported by Europol to take joint action against users of the service over the coming months.
“Call spoofing technology offers perpetrators a promise of anonymity and easy access to sophisticated tools and methods for committing crimes, making it increasingly easy for them,” said Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at ESET.
“However, what many of these criminal users are unaware of is that these services often maintain detailed records of their activities and personal data which can be collated by impressive police action.”
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