The cybercrime specialists from the Schwabach criminal police and the Bavarian Cybercrime Central Office have been conducting an investigation against the operators of fraudulent online shops (so-called “fake shops”) since July 2022. The starting point of the investigation was a criminal complaint from a victim from Schwabach.
Several fake shops
After extensive technical investigations, two 21 and 22 year old men from the Herford district in East Westphalia were identified who are strongly suspected of having designed several fake shops and posted them on the Internet.
They are also said to have misused the data of real existing companies by imitating their websites and using these fake online shops for their fraudulent purposes. The suspects are said to have posed as dealers in high-quality photovoltaic and solar modules. The defrauded customers paid in advance without ever receiving the products they ordered.
Specifically, these were the following fake shops:
– prestige-solar.de
– solar-boorberg.de
– delta-solartechnik.de
– huppermans-photovoltaik.de
– eletrox-solar.at
– NTG-solar.de
The investigations, which have been carried out covertly for several months by the Schwabach criminal police and the ZCB, led to the two accused who operated the fake online shops and are said to have caused financial loss to the deceived customers amounting to at least around EUR 140,000.
Securing evidence
On March 14, 2023, officers from the Schwabach criminal police, with the participation of a public prosecutor from the ZCB, searched the apartments of the accused in the Herford district (North Rhine-Westphalia). The large-scale search operation included officers from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, the Herford district police authority and forces from the special operations team at the Bielefeld police headquarters.
As a result, the search measures led to the seizure of numerous IT evidence such as cell phones and laptops, as well as written documents. In addition, the officers executed arrest warrants previously obtained against the 21- and 22-year-old suspects, who are now in custody.
Investigations are ongoing
The investigations by the ZCB and the Cyber Crime Commissioner of the Schwabach Criminal Police Department - including those who may have been involved in the crime - are continuing. The defendants are accused of, among other things, commercial fraud in several cases. The law provides for a prison sentence of 6 months to 10 years.
The Bavarian Cybercrime Central Office has existed at the Bamberg Public Prosecutor's Office since January 1, 2015. This central office is responsible throughout Bavaria for processing high-profile investigations in the area of cybercrime. It investigates in collaboration with the relevant specialists from the state and federal police, the Federal Criminal Police Office, the customs investigation service and with international partners, for example in attacks on important sectors of the economy or in cases of organized cybercrime.
The public prosecutors from the central office also take action when general crime cases require a high level of investigative effort in the area of computer and information technology. The cases processed are diverse. They range from hacker attacks to cases of advance payment fraud on the Internet, e.g. B. through professional so-called fake shops, and cases of ransomware through to the trade in weapons, drugs and counterfeit money on the Darknet. In addition, the Bavarian Cybercrime Central Office is responsible for high-profile cases of economic cybercrime.
Since October 1, 2020, the Bavarian Cybercrime Central Office has also had a center to combat child pornography and sexual abuse on the Internet. This special unit focuses in particular on operators and users of darknet forums who produce, post or trade child pornography material.
There are currently 22 public prosecutors and four IT forensic experts working at the Bavarian Cybercrime Central Office.
Source:
Bavaria Police
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