Prosecutors of the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office have sent an indictment to the court in a criminal proceeding against 4 organizers and 10 participants of a criminal organization, who obtained data from bank cards of citizens of the Czech Republic through deception and withdrew money from them.

Members of the group were detained as part of a large-scale operation conducted by the joint investigative group "Victory," consisting of law enforcement officers from Ukraine and the Czech Republic in September 2023.

Participants of the criminal organization found advertisements for the sale of goods on Czech online platforms "Sbazar," "Bazos," "Vinted" (analogous to "OLX"), communicated with sellers, and agreed to purchase goods with payment through online services. Then, phishing links that imitated real payment pages of the online service were sent to the sellers. After the victims entered their data there, the criminals obtained their bank card information.

The criminal group operated with a clear division of roles, where each participant was responsible for a specific area of work.

Thus, the most numerous grassroots link – the so-called "workers" – directly searched for advertisements for the sale of goods on online platforms and communicated with sellers, then sent information to the chat-bot of the criminal organization about having convinced the "client" to make an online payment.

Other members of the group generated phishing links that imitated real payment systems and sent them to the "worker."

In cases where the "worker" failed to deceive the victim, they used the "technical support" function provided by an experienced "worker."

In addition, the accused lured victims' bank details by sending them links supposedly from banking institutions for service improvement, etc.

Victims, believing they were providing details to receive payment for their goods or communicating with bank support services, were actually entering their bank card information on a phishing page.

Having received the bank card details, members of the group close to the organizers – the "vibers" – used VPN services that allowed them to simulate the device's location in the country of issuance of the bank card, and through online banking transferred the victims' money to accounts controlled by the organizers.

During the pre-trial investigation and as a result of the exchange of materials within the framework of the joint investigative group "Victory" between law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and the Czech Republic, evidence was collected of the criminal organization's members unlawfully obtaining money from 19 citizens of the Czech Republic amounting to 1.5 million UAH. They attempted to unlawfully obtain money from another 6 individuals.

Members of the criminal organization are charged with committing criminal offenses under Part 1 and Part 2 of Article 255 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 190 (as amended by Law No. 2617-VIII of November 22, 2018), Part 2 of Article 15, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 190 (as amended by Law No. 2617-VIII of November 22, 2018), Part 4 of Article 28, Part 5 of Article 190, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The sanction of the article provides for punishment of up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv with operational support from the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine and assistance from the National Agency for Combating Terrorism, Extremism, and Cybercrime of the Police of the Czech Republic.

Note: According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine, a person is presumed innocent of committing a crime and cannot be subjected to criminal punishment until their guilt is proven in a lawful manner and established by a guilty verdict of the court.