City of London Police has dismantled a global criminal network that stole £12m from one of the world’s largest technology companies. In an ongoing investigation detectives have already made four arrests and seized 87 boxes of equipment worth £1m.
City of London the national lead force for fraud has worked with Cisco after the company’s internal investigative staff uncovered the abuse of Cisco’s Service Warranty Program by what is suspected to be an organised crime group. Police believe the fraudsters used several fake customer identities to submit fraudulent claims for replacement parts for Cisco equipment still under warranty.
As a result of this fraud the criminal network was able to acquire technology systems worth up to £100,000 each to a number of locations in London, Manchester and Nottingham. Members of the crime group received daily instructions via email and moved around the country in hire cars. They would be on hand to collect the Cisco parts minutes after delivery.
The stolen equipment is suspected of being re-routed to a network of front companies based in England, Germany and the United States before being sold on to unsuspecting customers, sometimes via eBay.
Last week detectives arrested three men and a woman in London and Basingstoke and recovered a substantial amount of high value equipment. The suspects, all in their 30s, have since been released on bail.
