A transcontinental police operation against online financial crime has resulted in nearly 3.500 arrests and seizures worth more than €273 million in 34 countries.
Operation HAECHI IV lasted six months (July-December 2023) and targeted seven types of cyber-enabled scams: voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, and gambling money laundering. illegal online gambling, business e-commerce fraud.
Investigators worked together to detect online fraud and freeze associated bank and virtual asset services (VASP) accounts using INTERPOL's I-GRIP, a stop-payment mechanism that helps countries work together to block criminal proceeds .
Cooperation between Philippine and Korean authorities has led to the arrest of a high-profile online gambling criminal in Manila following a two-year manhunt by the Korea National Police Agency.
Authorities blocked 82.112 suspicious bank accounts, seizing a total of $199 million in hard currency and $101 million in virtual assets.
Working with a number of VASPs, INTERPOL helped frontline officers identify 367 virtual asset accounts linked to transnational organized crime. Police in member countries have frozen the assets and investigations are ongoing.
The head of INTERPOL's National Central Bureau in Korea, Kim Dong Kwon, said:
“It is notable that global efforts to anticipate the latest criminal trends have led to substantial growth in operational results.
“Despite criminals' efforts to gain illicit benefits through contemporary trends, they will eventually be arrested and face due punishment. To achieve this goal, Project HAECHI will constantly evolve and expand its scope.”
Two advisories were issued during Operation HAECHI IV warning countries about emerging digital investment fraud practices.
One alerted INTERPOL member countries to a new scam detected in Korea involving the sale of Ineligible Tokens with promises of huge returns, which turned out to be a “rug pull,” a growing scam in the cryptocurrency sector where developers abruptly abandon a project and investors lose their money.
The second purple alert warned about the use of AI and fake deep technology to lend credibility to scams by allowing criminals to hide their identities and pretend to be family members, friends or love interests.
The UK leg of the operation reported several cases where AI-generated synthetic content was used to deceive, defraud, harass and extort victims, particularly through impersonation scams, online sexual blackmail and investment fraud. The cases also involved impersonating people known to the victims through voice cloning technology.
HAECHI operations are financially supported by Korea.
HAECHI IV participating countries: Argentina, Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Ghana, Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Korea, Romania, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam.
