Serbia and Germany dismantle international phone fraud network

In an international police operation named ‘Silentium’, authorities in Serbia and Germany dismantled a major infrastructure used for telephone fraud. Serbian police, working with German investigators, arrested two men aged 26 and 27 in Smederevo on October 7.

The suspects are alleged to have provided Voice over IP (VoIP) services that allowed fraudsters to spoof caller IDs, making them appear as bank employees or police officers. According to German investigators, this infrastructure was used to place at least 600,000 calls linked to more than 18,000 fraud cases.

In 70 confirmed cases, damages totaled approximately 764,000 euros, while the revenue generated from providing these services is estimated to exceed 1.6 million euros. The operation was conducted as part of the EMPACT cycle, focusing on suppressing call-center fraud. Related searches in Germany resulted in the seizure of domains, servers, and Telegram accounts. German authorities are expected to request the extradition of the two suspects arrested in Serbia.