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Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

itnews.com.au

61–70 of 100 posts

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#61
If websites didn't force insecure SMS 2FA, these services wouldn't be neccesary. It's like we can't have nice things anymore because criminals can't have nice things so you can't have them either.

Try entering a landline whenever you're asked a phone number for your account. They say the number is invalid, which I find insulting because I know my number very well and it's been around for longer than those websites.

And now this article insults me again by saying it's only used for criminal activities.

The gall.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#62
post #2

I don't think this comment will contribute much, so please forgive that, but calling a "Collaboration between Europol and the Shadowserver Foundation" for "Euro cops" is probably the most Australian thing I've ever seen on the entire internet. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cybe...

Glad I'm not the only one. Euro Cops!

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#63
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has its advantages, but I'd never list "more pure" and "not corrupt" among them. The EU introduced lobbying (=legal corruption) into European politics when most countries historically didn't have much of it. It also has a massive amount of normal, God-fearing illegal corruption. Many of the biggest stories about the EU are about or have a sizable aspect of corruption. Chat Control amd Thorn, Ursula von der Ley…

On the contrary, EU is notoriously hard for the rich to lobby. It is also the primary motivation behind the super rich to be against EU since they too are having trouble to find someone in EU to solve their "problems". A famous anecdote is from Rupert Murdock who is able to influence UK poltics at whim but had no effect on EU: https://www.quora.com/When-I-go-into-Downing-Street-they-do-... He was also a huge backer o…

> EU is notoriously hard for the rich to lobby.

Yes, the rich are lobbying the EU hard. /s

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#64
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed the title more that I want to admit TBH :) In every country in Europe people are pissed with their government and hate the police but when its a "Euro" thing it feels much better. The online narrative may make you think that "Europe" is a dirty word(chat control, cookie banner, regulations, fines etc), but its actually much more pure than any local politics and much much less divisive. The "Euro cops" phras…

This reminded me of something Jean-Claude Juncker once said about democracy in the EU: > We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it. Being a step removed from local politics means they can do stuff without the immediate fear they're all kicked out, but the other downside of people not really caring who they elect is it's relatively easy to be elected on a "We hate the EU" lin…

The stuff they did in this particular case is likely a violation of all laws involved, just like the other recent case with the US Secret Service in New York City. In both cases they are seizing someone's business equipment, on the assumption that because it is an unusual business and sometimes it is used for spam, the business itself is spam.

Actually, it's probably legal in the USA, but completely illegal in the EU where the Digital Services Act regulation very specifically says that a mere conduit of data transmissions cannot be held liable for data transmissions passing through it which it didn't originate. I only know anything about the law in Germany (and I am not a lawyer) so let's pretend this happened in Germany - then the business operator - presuming that they're running a relay business and not spammers themselves - would win back all the money this police action deprived them of, including lost revenue, equipment costs, lawyer fees, and repairs for any damages incurred during the raid. Their cellphone provider is probably allowed to terminate their contract however, and could sue them if they had any meaningful damages. The civil court system here is very algorithmic as far as I'm aware: if(you broke the law) you.transfer(victim, victim.money_if_you_hadnt_broken_the_law - victim.money);

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#65
post #25

> In the raid, authorities seized 1200 SIM boxes, with the devices containing 40,000 active SIM cards Realistically, wouldn't that look suspicious to a cell tower if 40k sims log in from one location?

I bet it looks better in their books to have 40K paying customers more than not having those, so they just ignore it as long as not causing more problems than they are worth it. My guess is that the telcos were making half a million euros a month from these.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#66
post #33

This is a legitimate service also used by privacy minded individuals - just like the recent similar raid in the USA. What's the actual crime here?

It's usually the illegitimate use cases that cause problem. According to the article the problem was that they were used for scams.

Re: Euro cops take down cybercrime network with 49M fake accounts

#69

why are taxes being used to moderate Facebook?

If someone robs a costumer inside a McDonald's do you complain when the cops that arrive and capture the thieves are paid with taxes and not by McDonald's itself?

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