Eleven Arrested over Financial Cybertheft

Police investigations led to the arrest of 11 individuals in several Moroccan cities over the establishment of a criminal network designed to illicitly obtain personal data in order to hack into, commandeer, and embezzle from personal bank accounts, a reliable source had said.
The individuals arrested—who range in age from 15 to 37–were apprehended in security operations conducted in Laayoune, Dakhla, Casablanca, Agadir, Fez, Khemisset, and Wislane, a suburb of Meknes.
Preliminary investigations have found that the suspects used two criminal methods to carry out their cyber-attacks.
In the first method, known as “smishing” (SMS Fishing), scammers elicit a response from unsuspecting victims by texting messages to their mobile phones, thereby obtaining personal data by which to facilitate the theft of funds from their accounts.
The second method utilized was e-commerce fraud, which involves defrauding individuals who wish to sell goods on e-commerce sites by using fraudulent messages to obtain their banking information.
Investigations are ongoing in the hopes of bringing to justice all of those involved in these criminal acts.