Five people were indicted Thursday in Paris, suspected of having used a surveillance system used by the intelligence services, called IMSI-catcher, for a scam with fraudulent SMS messages from Health Insurance, it was reported. learned this Saturday from concordant sources. The principle used by the criminals was to “create a powerful virtual network forcing devices equipped with a SIM card to cling to it, in order to broadcast SMS allowing scams from Ameli accounts”, explain the gendarmes. .
This investigation, conducted under the aegis of the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco), was opened after a complaint was filed in September for fraud by a telecommunications company with the Operations Division of the Gendarmerie Command in cyberspace (ComCybergend), according to a press release from the gendarmerie.
A total of six people have been identified by investigators. Five were arrested on Tuesday. On Thursday, the suspects were indicted in particular for fraud and attempted fraud in an organized gang, unauthorized possession of a technical device intended to capture computer data, and for accessing and maintaining in an automated data processing system. data (STAD), indicated for its part the parquet floor of Paris. Three were remanded in custody and two under judicial supervision. The investigations are continuing.
Redirection to a fraudulent site
The investigators then suspect “a team of criminals” of using “in a vehicle circulating in Île-de-France, a false base station (IMSI-Catcher)”, a device usually used by the intelligence or police services to intercept connection data in a given area.
In total, between September 2022 and February 2023, “more than 400,000 people” were affected, receiving a fraudulent SMS, General Marc Boget, commander of the gendarmerie in cyberspace, told AFP. The SMS invited them to “update their personal data by clicking on a link which directs them to a site usurping that of the Health Insurance”, added the gendarmerie.
On December 30, 2022, during a roadside check, police arrested a driver in Paris who had an IMSI-catcher in her vehicle. But in the course of their investigations, the gendarmes understood that several devices of this type were in fact used for this scam. A second was discovered on Tuesday. He was in an old ambulance that circulated in the northern and western suburbs of Paris, General Boget said. These devices may be found for “sale on the dark web “, explained the general.