International Operation Shuts Down iSpoof Call Spoofing Site, Arrests 142 Scammers

Last Thursday, Europol announced that a task force of judicial and law enforcement agencies in Europe, Australia, Ukraine, Canada and the United States succeeded in shutting down a “spoofing” website that allowed criminals to impersonate corporations or personal contacts in order to scam people out of their sensitive information. 

United Kingdom authorities estimated the worldwide loss from the website’s operations in excess of nearly $120 million (GBP 100 Million).

iSpoof (ispoof.me), the website in question, now redirects to a domain seizure notice from the FBI and the United States Secret Service under a warrant from the Western District of Pennsylvania. 

The Metropolitan Police, which headed up the investigation under Scotland Yard’s Cyber Crime Unit, described the arrests in a statement as the product of the “UK’s biggest ever fraud operation.” Nicknamed Operation Elaborate, the investigation kicked off in June 2021 and identified 59,000 user accounts and potential suspects. 

Before it was shuttered, the site allowed criminals to sign up and pay with bitcoin to spoof the phone numbers of trusted companies and organizations, including banks and government agencies, in order to trick their victims. 

“Together with the support of partners across UK policing and internationally, we are reinventing the way fraud is investigated. The Met is targeting the criminals at the center of these illicit webs that cause misery for thousands,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement. 

“By taking away the tools and systems that have enabled fraudsters to cheat innocent people at scale, this operation shows how we are determined to target corrupt individuals intent on exploiting often vulnerable victims.”

In the multi-agency crackdown this November, 142 users and admins associated with criminal activity on iSpoof were arrested across multiple countries. The site’s primary administrator was arrested on November 6 in the United Kingdom, and on Nov 8, the website and server were seized and shut down by the United States and Ukrainian authorities. 

The United States supported the operation through the Pittsburgh divisions and field offices of the FBI and Secret Service and through the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania. 

“Our message to criminals who have used this website is we have your details and are working hard to locate you, regardless of where you are,” Metropolitan Detective Superintendent Helen Rance warned suspects operating in the United Kingdom.