Category: Fraud

Anthropic’s latest threat intelligence report describes operations it disrupted between December 2025 and August 2026 in which people tried to misuse its Claude AI models. The cases span seven areas: cyber operations, influence operations, surveillance, scams and fraud, biological misuse, conventional weapons development and illicit model distillation. The company says the examples are the most notable and novel it has seen, not typical misuse, and that in each case it banned the accounts involved, strengthened its safeguards and shared intelligence with authorities and industry partners where appropriate. The central fraud case concerns a China-based app studio that used Claude to…

Ukraine’s Security Service and National Police have dismantled a Kyiv-based cryptocurrency fraud network that allegedly targeted people in the European Union and turned over as much as $1 million a month at its peak. Investigators say the group involved several dozen people and was led by a 25-year-old IT specialist. Members posed as representatives of crypto platforms and promoted supposedly lucrative investments through Telegram channels. After being shown fake trading results, victims were directed to websites imitating legitimate crypto services. Those sites carried malicious ‘drainer’ code that let the fraudsters empty a victim’s wallet once it was connected and a…

Police in New South Wales have charged three accountants with helping an organised crime syndicate obtain tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent loans, taking the number of people charged in the investigation to 33. The syndicate is alleged to have begun by using stolen identities to finance luxury vehicles that did not exist, so-called ‘ghost cars’, before moving into large-scale personal, business and home-loan fraud against several financial institutions. Police allege the accountants abused their professional positions to approve false applications. A 46-year-old accounting firm director is charged over documents linked to $16.2 million in loans, while two others,…

Two businessmen are standing trial at Southwark Crown Court in London over an alleged investor fraud of about £88 million, or $119 million, linked to a car investment scheme, according to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The defendants are Reginald Larry-Cole, founder of the Raedex Consortium, and Scott Martin, its former chief executive. Each faces three counts of fraud and both have pleaded not guilty. Raedex operated investment schemes including Buy2Let Cars, PayGo Cars, Wheels4Sure and Rent2Own Cars, which offered investors returns from fleets of leased vehicles. The companies went into administration in 2021, leaving hundreds of investors facing losses.…

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has made a further arrest in its ‘Escape Room’ investigation into a VAT carousel fraud network operating across six EU member states. The network is alleged to have used hundreds of shell companies and fictitious invoices to disguise trade in electronic devices and evade VAT in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands and Poland. EPPO estimates losses of at least $79 million in the Netherlands and Belgium. Eight other suspects were arrested in Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland in October 2025. Prosecutors allege the man now arrested acted as a broker between companies in…

LYON, France – A global anti-fraud operation involving 97 countries and territories has led to the arrest of 5,811 individuals and the interception of USD 293 million in illicit assets. Operation First Light 2026 (15 Jan 2026 – 30 April 2026), coordinated by INTERPOL, focused on combatting social engineering scams and associated money laundering activities. Social engineering is a broad term that refers to techniques that exploit a person’s trust to obtain money or confidential information. This type of fraud can include business email compromise, sextortion, as well as romance, impersonation or investment scams. After an initial period of intelligence…

The European Commission today published its 2025 Annual Report on the Protection of the European Union’s Financial Interests (PIF Report), introducing for the first time a comprehensive assessment of the entire anti-fraud cycle and setting out the next steps to strengthen the protection of the EU budget against fraud and corruption. The report marks a significant evolution in how the European Union measures its efforts to safeguard public funds. Rather than focusing primarily on fraud detection, it assesses every stage of the anti-fraud cycle, from prevention and early detection to investigation, prosecution, recovery and reporting. By bringing together information from…

Fraud volumes continue to rise across the globe, and UK institutions are in the crosshairs of increasingly sophisticated criminal networks. UK Finance’s Annual Fraud Report 2026 highlights a troubling reality: while financial institutions continue to prevent significant volumes of fraud, criminals are becoming more skilled at avoiding scrutiny. In 2025 alone, criminals stole £1.28 billion through payment fraud, representing a 4 per cent year-on-year increase and the second consecutive year of growth. These figures reflect not only the scale of the threat but also the adaptability that new technologies afford organised criminal enterprises. The most important insight from this year’s…

Experts have warned that Sri Lanka is emerging as a hub for transnational cybercrime, after a crackdown in south-east Asia pushed Chinese-run criminal networks to relocate their vast scam operations. Sri Lankan police spokesperson Fredrick Wootler said the country was witnessing an “alarming increase of cybercrimes” perpetrated by people entering the country as tourists, and then illegally setting up scam operations targeting people across the world. Authorities in Sri Lanka have carried out more than a dozen raids on alleged scam operations in the country since the beginning of the year, arresting and deporting almost 700 foreigners accused of involvement.…

Increasingly elaborate investment scams involving gold, cryptocurrencies and wine have soared in the past year with more than £220m lost to the fraud, according to a report. UK banks reported almost 15,000 investment scams in 2025 as criminals use artificial intelligence to dupe people out of their money. About £221.5m was lost to scams in which people were persuaded to move their money to a fake investment or a fictitious fund, a rise of 40% from the year before, according to the report from UK Finance. This particular fraud is popular among criminals as it often has high returns, according…

Just days before the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, cybersecurity experts are raising the alarm over a massive, highly sophisticated surge in digital fraud targeting soccer fans worldwide, offering them fake tickets, nonexistent travel packages, counterfeit merchandise, suspicious betting apps on websites impersonating FIFA. The tournament, which has drawn unprecedented global interest, has become the “perfect bait” for opportunistic hackers and criminal syndicates, according to David Gonzalez Cuautle, the awareness and research manager at the cybersecurity firm ESET. “Cybercriminals tend to operate in seasons and with specific themes,” Gonzalez Cuautle said in an interview with OCCRP, adding that the…

The SFO is investigating allegations of fraud by three UK companies in relation to Energy Company Obligation 4 (ECO4), a UK government energy efficiency scheme designed to tackle fuel poverty and help reduce carbon emissions. At the heart of the investigation are allegations that Warmfront Team Ltd, JJ Crump and South Coast Insulation Services were involved in a sophisticated conspiracy across the country to undermine a government scheme by submitting claims where little or no work was undertaken. It is suspected that energy companies were defrauded of at least £44 million in this way. Working with the National Crime Agency,…

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office announced Wednesday that it has indicted 62 individuals and 13 companies and seized more than $170 million in assets linked to Prince Group, heightening global action against the Cambodia-based conglomerate accused of running extensive online fraud operations. Included among the three principal defendants in the Taiwanese charges is Chen Zhi, the chairman of Prince Group who was extradited from Cambodia to Beijing earlier this year Chen Zhi’s legal representatives did not respond to a request for comment before publication. The Prince Group has said allegations made by U.S. and U.K. authorities are “baseless and appear…

In a sign that prosecutors in Germany’s Bamberg region are ramping up efforts to fight cybercrime, a court has begun hearing its second case involving a person accused of providing software allegedly designed to facilitate fake investment scams. While legal action has most often targeted people running cyberfraud operations, Bavaria’s Bamberg Regional Court this month began another trial of someone who ran a company that allegedly enabled scammers. Opening arguments began on March 2 in the trial of a man identified only as “Shay B.” To protect privacy, full names are typically not disclosed to media in German trials. He…

The Isle of Man has brought in new sanctions as part of an international crackdown on a criminal network linked to large-scale online fraud and human trafficking, the government has said.The Treasury said measures were in line with the UK and formed part of a wider operation involving the US and other international agencies.It said the sanctions aimed to target individuals and organisations linked to purpose-built “scam compounds” in south east Asia, where trafficked people were forced to carry out online fraud.Home Affairs Minister Jane Poole-Wilson said: “Working with our international partners is essential in tackling serious criminal groups.”She said:…

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on Wednesday arrested six people and searched seven sites in an operation conducted as it announced a bribery and fraud investigation into the former management of Home REIT, a UK-listed social housing company. The suspected wrongdoing is valued at about 300 million pounds (nearly $404 million). Investigators, supported by the National Crime Agency, carried out searches at homes in Altrincham, Maidenhead and London, and a commercial site in Manchester. Italy’s Guardia di Finanza also searched a property in Venice as part of the inquiry. Home REIT, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2020,…

Cambodia is a global epicenter for scam centers, home to one of the biggest synthetic drug labs ever detected, and its citizens have been involved in an array of Southeast Asia’s most infamous — and lucrative — transnational crimes. Meanwhile, “corruption and official complicity” enables “endemic” human trafficking involving tens of thousands of victims, according to the U.S. State Department. Cambodia’s government, which did not respond to questions from OCCRP, has launched a crackdown on scam factories and says it has made thousands of arrests. It also signed agreements to strengthen anti-money laundering measures last year. Even so, international observers…

You get a call from your bank and the informed voice asks to you to confirm the personal details they have on file, which you do. You are then asked whether you bought something at an electrical retailer recently for £120 and spent £235 in Birmingham, but neither transaction rings true. The caller tells you they have blocked the payments but they must now secure your account, and say they will send you a notification to approve, or a code to pass on to them. You feel under pressure to protect your money, so you do what is asked. Unfortunately,…

Authorities in Europe and Israel have targeted companies and suspects behind fraudulent social media advertising campaigns as part of a crackdown on a massive cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering operation, which allegedly scammed thousands of victims with fake online investment schemes. Coordinated actions by law enforcement in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, and Israel in November led to two arrests and other suspects questioned, Europol said Thursday. The European Union law enforcement agency said it was the second phase of an operation that led to nine arrests in October across Cyprus, Germany, and Spain connected with the laundering of illicit funds generated…

Ukraine’s government has moved to sanction businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate and business partner of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, amid a widening corruption probe that has already ensnared several senior officials. The decision was announced Wednesday, a day after Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said it had dismantled a high-level criminal organization accused of siphoning large sums from the country’s state-owned nuclear energy operator, Energoatom, through an elaborate kickback and money-laundering scheme. NABU said the 15-month investigation, codenamed Midas, uncovered a group of so-called “shadow managers” who allegedly infiltrated Energoatom to systematically extort kickbacks from contractors and laundered an estimated…

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) on Wednesday said it uncovered the first multimillion-euro VAT fraud in Croatia, involving 78 million euros ($90.27 million) in unpaid tax, highlighting cross-border coordination to disrupt large-scale tax evasion in the EU. The investigation targeted a criminal group trading in electronics and hygiene products, resulting in arrests and asset seizures in both Croatia and Italy. In Croatia, six suspects were arrested, with pre-trial detention requested for five, and authorities froze two properties and eight vehicles worth around 650,000 euros ($752,240). In Italy, the Court of Naples froze 33 million euros ($38.19 million) in assets…

Ukrainian anti-corruption prosecutors have sent to court a large-scale criminal case against officials of the Chernivtsi Customs Office accused of running a “grey import” scheme that cost the state nearly 290 million hryvnias (about $7 million). The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) said they completed the investigation into what they described as a criminal organization embedded in the customs authority. Investigators allege the group manipulated import duties through fraudulent declarations, allowing high-value goods to enter Ukraine at artificially low rates. The organization allegedly included both current and former customs officers, among them…