Russian Coms, the scam platform behind 1.8 million fraudulent calls, has been shut down by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
Russian Coms was established in 2021 and is thought to be behind financial losses in the tens of millions of pounds, according to an NCA statement published on August 1.
The NCA said that over the course of three years, over 1.3 million calls were made by Russian Coms users to 500,000 unique UK phone numbers.
The average loss was £9,400 ($12,000) based on those who reported to Action Fraud.
Calls were made to individuals in 107 different countries around the world, including the USA, New Zealand, Norway, France and the Bahamas.
The Platform That Powered Millions of Scams
The platform allowed criminals to hide their identity by appearing to call from pre-selected numbers, most commonly of financial institutions, telecommunications companies and law enforcement agencies.
This enabled them to gain the trust of victims before stealing their money and personal details, the NCA explained.
Russian Coms was available as a handset and, latterly, as a web app, marketed through Snapchat, Instagram and Telegram.
According to adverts shared across social media, the service included “unlimited minutes”, “hold music”, “encrypted phone calls”, “instant handset wipe”, international calls, voice changing services, and 24/7 support.
The NCA said a typical scam would involve offenders spoofing the number of a bank to gain the trust of a victim, before convincing them that their account had been subject to fraudulent activity. They would then be persuaded to transfer their money to another account to safeguard their savings.
The handset version of Russia Coms could only be used to make spoofed calls. The NCA said it would be loaded with several fake applications that had no functionality, to make it look like an everyday smartphone if seized by law enforcement.
This was in addition to several VPN apps, allowing the user to hide their IP address, and a burn app that instantly wiped the phone after being activated. A six-month contract cost between £1,200 ($1500) and £1,400 ($1800), depending on collection and delivery.
“Whilst this use of technology, which can be called ‘crime as a service’, promises anonymity, unbeknown to the criminal users, the services also store the users’ data, so we can identify who they are and how they operate,” Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre within the NCA, said.
“Users of Russian Coms, and all those tempted to try out similar services, should know that these services cannot be trusted.”
Fraud accounts for approximately 40% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales, and over 80% of it is believed to be technology-enabled.