14 DAY TRIAL // In a concerted effort involving international law enforcement agencies, 130 individuals were detained for possessing airline tickets purchased using stolen payment card data.
The operation was organized at 140 airports across five continents (Europe, Asia, Australia, America and Africa), in a total of 49 countries.
The purpose of the action, which took place on June 16 and 17, was to target criminal online services that trade payment card data and airplane tickets bought in fraudulent transactions.
Most fraudulent transactions recorded in Europe
According to statistics, this criminal activity caused airline businesses to incur massive losses estimated at about €1 / $1.116 billion, also impacting card users whose data is stolen.
“Since airline ticket fraud is a complex and global phenomenon posing certain security issues, targeting the organised crime groups active in this area requires communication between airlines, issuing banks, payment card schemes, IATA and law enforcement on an international level,” says a communication from Europol on Monday.
Law enforcement agencies set up three coordination centers, at Europol in The Hague, Interpol in Singapore, and Ameripol in Bogota. Additional help came from Canadian and US authorities.
Working 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, most of them (74%) in Europe.
People arrested were part of various criminal enterprises
The action on airports was part of Operation Blue Amber, an international endeavor against organized crime from 28 European Union countries and international partners.
Out of the 130 individuals questioned by the police, 101 of them were detained in Europe, 11 in Asia Pacific, 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.
Speaking on this international effort, Wil van Gemert, Deputy Director Operations at Europol, said that it was the result of multiple “meticulous planning between Europol, law enforcement, prosecuting and border control agencies, airlines and credit card companies, and is a perfect example of how our combined forces can track down the organised crime gangs involved in this 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.
