Cops in Europe and Malaysia have arrested 105 people accused of participation in a massive organised criminal enterprise that made counterfeit credit cards that were used to buy high-value goods worth millions of euros.
After an investigation that began in late 2015, police swooped to make 29 arrests in Malaysia and 76 in countries all over Europe.
Set up in Malaysia, the criminal gang committed payments fraud all over the world, says Europol. Counterfeit credit cards were manufactured and used to buy expensive goods, mainly at electronic stores and duty-free shops at airports, causing losses estimated at EUR5 million.
During the final raid of the operation, the gang's leaders were arrested among others and two illegal production sites of high quality credit cards were dismantled. During house searches, 3000 counterfeit payment cards were also seized, alongside fake passports, cameras, jewellery and large amounts of cash.
Separately, fast food chain Wendy's has confirmed that a malware attack on franchisee-owned restaurant POS systems is "considerably" bigger than first thought, affecting cards used at around 1025 of its US locations.
The firm says it thinks that the attacks happened after hackers compromised service providers' remote access credentials allowing them to deploy malware and take cardholder names, credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates, cardholder verification values, and service codes.
With nearly 20% of US outlets affected, the breach is far bigger than Wendy's initially reported in May, when the burger joint said that it had found malware on POS systems at fewer than 300 franchised restaurants.
Todd Penegor, CEO, Wendy's, says: "We are committed to protecting our customers and keeping them informed. We sincerely apologise to anyone who has been inconvenienced as a result of these highly sophisticated, criminal cyberattacks involving some Wendy's restaurants."