ATTEMPTED EXTORTION FROM A LEGAL PERSON FROM CROATIA USING INTERNET MALVERSATIONS
| Banja Luka | Friday, 01/12/2023
Police officers of the Unit for countering high-tech crime of the Crime Police Administration, the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior, submitted a report to Banja Luka District Prosecutor’s Office against the person whose initials are A.B. from Banja Luka for committing the following criminal offences: ‘Developing and Introducing Computer Viruses’ Article 409, paragraph 2 of the Republic of Srpska Criminal Code, connected to the criminal offence ‘Computer Fraud’ from Article 410, paragraph 3, and criminal offences of ‘Extortion’ from Article 232, paragraph 3, and ‘Attempt’ Article 22, connected to the criminal offence of ‘Unauthorised Access to Protected Computers, Computer Networks, Telecommunication Networks and Electronic Data Processing Systems’ Article 411, paragraph 2, connected to paragraph 1 of the same Article of the Republic of Srpska Criminal Code.
The aforementioned criminal offences have been committed when the suspect, from June 2021 to 29 August 2021, with the intention of obtaining illegal material gain, used a false account of electronic mail and presented the facts falsely in order to mislead the employees of a legal person whose headquarters are in the Republic of Croatia. Therefore, they believed it was a trustworthy sender, so they opened and activated an attachment to an electronic message, which enabled a programme to be installed without their knowledge or consent, and then also the access to their computers and whole computer system. After that the suspect asked this legal person a payment in Bitcoin virtual currency, i.e. BAM 250,000.00, or HRK 1,000,000.
On this occasion, the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior would like to warn citizens and legal persons about the increasingly common phenomenon of false messages of electronic mail whose aim is identity theft, thefts of memorized passwords, and stress that, in case of any doubt of potential attack, everything should be reported to the nearest police station without delay.
