Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

Cops have dismantled a sophisticated gang of Dark Web hackers who stole login details for loyalty points and sold them on to criminal gangs.

The Polish and Swiss authorities worked together with Europol and Eurojust to dismantle the InfinityBlack hacker group with five alleged members of the gang arrested across Poland.

The hackers had reportedly accessed Swiss accounts for loyalty points that could be exchanged for high-end electronic devices.

The group then created online platforms where they would sell the login details to other criminal gangs. Those gangs would then exchange the loyalty points for expensive electronic devices.

Europol report the losses from the scheme are estimated at 50,000 EUR (43,739 GBP) but the hackers had access to accounts with potential losses of more than 610,000 EUR (533,615 GBP).

The gangs of fraudsters who are buying this information were identified when using the stolen data in shops in Switzerland, and this led investigators to the hackers.

The five alleged hackers were arrested when the Polish National Police searched six locations in five Polish regions, while five arrests of those suspected of purchasing the stolen login details were made in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

Europol report that among the arrests were minors.

Police seized electronic equipment, external hard drives and hardware cryptocurrency wallets, all worth around 100,000 EUR (87,478 GBP). Two of the platforms where the details were closed down, with a total of over 170 million entries.

Reports state those arrested face 10 years in prison if found guilty.

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