First arrests made by the UK Police Central E-crime Unit

First arrests were made this week by the UK Police Central E-crime Unit (PCeU) that was formed in September last year, with £7.4 million in funding over three years. In association with a "virtual task force" that includes members of the financial services industry the unit arrested nine suspects in southeast London in connection with money laundering, computer misuse and conspiracy to defraud using malware designed to compromise online bank accounts.

According to reports nine suspects, four females and five males all under the age of 30, are believed to be part of an Eastern European criminal network that has been planting crimeware to compromise bank account data on servers across Europe hosting legitimate websites. Some of the group were charged on Thursday for allegedly orchestrating the fraud and not just acting as "money mules" transferring and withdrawing the funds from compromised accounts.

The “virtual task force’ that participated in the investigation includes "a fair few of the major UK banks", according to a Metropolitan Police spokesperson. A memorandum of understanding signed by those banks specifies quick intelligence sharing between security and anti-fraud managers at banks and the new police unit. Besides, the unit also said that it is closely working with eBay to share intelligence on online fraud.