The Hague police arrest man for using phishing panel

The Hague police arrested a 22-year-old resident of The Hague on Monday for, among other things, computer breaches and theft. The man is said to have bought a phishing panel from a man from Almelo, who was sentenced to three years in prison last year.

The police came into the picture during an investigation into buyers of a panel builder, the police writes. De Almeloër supplied phishing panels to order. Phishing panels are packages of counterfeit banking websites that can be used to steal credentials. In 2020, the then 19-year-old man was arrested in his hometown. Last year he was sentenced to three years in prison, of which one year was probation.

The panel builder’s customers used the phishing panels to steal the login details of bank customers. The victims were sent a link from their ‘bank’ via an app message or text message. When they clicked on that, they were sent to the login screen of the counterfeit banking website. The online banking credentials entered there were then used by the criminals to empty their victims’ bank accounts.

The arrested resident of The Hague is suspected of fraud, theft, computer breaches, money laundering, having a phishing panel and participating in a criminal organization. The man will be arraigned on March 17.