A 27-year-old man from Rheden who is suspected of building so-called ‘phishing panels’ has been sentenced to 1 year in prison, of which half a year is conditional. The public prosecutor has also demanded 240 hours of community service and a fine of 9,000 euros.
The suspect sold the homemade phishing panels, with fake banking websites that are almost indistinguishable from the real ones, to criminals who could use them to gain access to people’s banking details. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) and the defense have made procedural agreements.
Criminals who had purchased the phishing software persuaded their victims to click on a fake (payment) link. Unsuspecting users filled in their login details, while the criminals could watch ‘live’. “That’s how they emptied the bank accounts. The sites seem very real and the tricks used to defraud people are becoming increasingly clever. Anyone can fall victim to this,” said the public prosecutor of the National Public Prosecution Service.
On April 29, 2021, the police High Tech Crime Team received information from a cybersecurity company about possible sellers and developers of a phishing kit. This showed that a person with the nickname @rreliable was active on Telegram as a developer of phishing kits. This marked the start of the search for this Reliable. The police found the 27-year-old suspect via his IP address. By using special powers such as pseudo-purchase and systematic information gathering, detectives came to the conclusion that he had to be Reliable. The man was arrested on July 20, 2021 in Arnhem.
His panel was sold and used extensively. He indicated in the messages that a ‘standard panel’ includes at least six Dutch banks: ANB AMRO, ING, Rabobank, SNS-bank, ASN and Regiobank.
The Public Prosecution Service also suspects the man of laundering cash amounts and bitcoins. The total value: approximately 60,000 euros. The suspect has stated that he was paid for his criminal services with cryptocurrencies and cash. All this while he has had no income since 2017 and does not provide any explanation for the existence of previously purchased bitcoins.