Manchester Airport stormed by police following major UK operation

Police made arrests at Manchester Airport in connection with an investigation into an online scamming website that 'tricked' 70,000 victims.

The UK-founded website that was used to "defraud victims on an industrial scale" has been infiltrated, with suspects arrested around the world, the Metropolitan Police has said. As many as 70,000 UK victims were tricked by the site’s scams, which obtained 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs globally.

Law enforcement agencies have arrested 37 suspects across the UK and around the world, including at Manchester and Luton airports, as well as in Essex and London.

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LabHost, a scammer site set up in 2021 by a criminal network, enabled users to set up phishing websites designed to trick victims into revealing personal information such as email addresses, passwords, and bank details.

Criminal subscribers were able to log on and choose from existing sites or request bespoke pages replicating those of trusted brands including banks, healthcare agencies and postal services.

LabHost even provided templates and an easy to follow tutorial allowing would-be fraudsters with limited IT knowledge to use the service. At the end of the tutorial, a robotic voice told fraudsters: “Stay safe and good spamming.”

By the beginning of 2024, more than 40,000 fraudulent sites had been created and 2,000 users were registered and paying a monthly subscription fee. LabHost provided its subscribers with fake profiles for 170 companies to trick victims, including 47 based in the UK.

Those subscribing to the “worldwide membership”, meaning they could target victims internationally, paid