The international legal system successfully struck a major blow against organized financial crime with the coordinated takedown of three vast credit card fraud and money laundering operations. Dubbed “Operation Chargeback,” the joint action on November 4th involved investigators from nine countries, including Germany, the USA, Canada, and the Netherlands. The operation, spearheaded by German prosecutors and the Federal Criminal Police Office, and centrally coordinated by Eurojust and Europol, targeted networks that collectively defrauded millions of credit card users worldwide. Authorities estimate the total loss from the fraud at over €300 million, with over 4.3 million cardholders across 193 nations affected.
The extensive investigation identified 44 suspects, including the alleged network operators, various intermediaries, and several key payment service providers. The coordinated action led to the arrest of 18 individuals, notably including five executives from four major German payment service providers. In Germany alone, over 250 officers conducted 29 searches across eight states, seizing assets valued at more than €35 million in Germany and Luxembourg. These seizures included a cache of luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency holdings, laptops, and mobile phones, marking a significant recovery effort.
The core of the criminal scheme involved the suspects allegedly using stolen or compromised credit card data to create over 19 million fake online subscriptions between 2016 and 2021. These fraudulent accounts were set up on websites purportedly offering pornography, dating, and streaming services. To keep the transactions under the radar and minimize chargebacks, the credit card charges were kept intentionally low—around €50 per month—and used vague descriptions that made it difficult for victims to quickly spot the unauthorized deductions on their statements.
Eurojust detailed that the fraud targeted users with 19 million accounts in total, noting that the estimated value of the attempted fraud against card users amounted to over €750 million. Europol added that the suspects exploited the infrastructure of four major German payment service providers to process and launder the illicit transactions. Six suspects, including executives and compliance officers, are now charged with colluding with the fraud networks, allegedly granting them access to the necessary payment infrastructure in exchange for fees.
To further obscure their activities, the alleged fraudsters made extensive use of numerous shell companies, primarily established in the United Kingdom and Cyprus, often facilitated by “crime-as-a-service” providers. These shell entities were crucial in processing the fraudulent transactions while helping to minimize the immediate risk of detection and subsequent chargebacks. Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle heralded “Operation Chargeback” as a powerful demonstration of effective international cooperation in dismantling complex transnational criminal enterprises.
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