1.- Private industry, NGOs and law enforcement step up the fight against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online
Europol Press Release
Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol announced the launch a new European Financial Coalition against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online. The 36-months project co-financed by the European Commission will tackle old and new online commercial distribution practices of child sexual abuse material.
Brussels, 26 November 2012: Representatives of law enforcement, civil society and private industry have launched the new European Financial Coalition against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online (EFC).
This initiative, co-financed and supported by the European Commission, aims to fight the sexual exploitation of children online by taking action via the payment and ICT systems that are used to run these illegal operations. It builds on a previous project launched in 2009 which aimed at combating commercial websites facilitating the trade of child abuse material.
“Child abuse and its commercial exploitation are heinous crimes against our most vulnerable citizens. We must bring together key players from law enforcement, industry and civil society to halt the shameful trade in child abuse material. This coalition does exactly that”, Cecilia Malmström said.
While enormous progress has already been made and the number of traditional commercial websites has decreased, one has witnessed over the past years a migration towards more opaque online environments, such as chat groups or private, peer-to-peer file sharing networks (darknet).
Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol and President of the EFC said: “As the commercial exploitation of child abuse takes new forms and is increasingly difficult to track, law enforcement needs to get a better insight into the payment and ICT capabilities of criminals. That is why cooperating with the private sector and civil society in the framework of such initiatives has become more important than ever.”
The new European Financial Coalition will work towards five objectives:
1. Support international law enforcement investigations; wherever possible through cooperation with private stakeholders;
2. Assess & study the commercial child sexual exploitation on the Internet through all kinds of Internet environments, such as hosting services, newsgroups, etc.
3. Help protect legitimate private business interests from possible misuse of their services perpetrated by criminals with the aim of distributing child sexual abuse content through different information & communication technologies;
4. Empower law enforcement & private companies in counteracting the problem through the delivery of training & sharing of resources
5. Inform decision makers & raise awareness among the public about the EFC’s activities
The chair of the new European Financial Coalition is held by Europol. The secretariat is hosted by Missing Children Europe in Brussels and led by a Steering Committee composed of representatives of Inhope, MasterCard, Visa Europe, Paypal, Microsoft, Google, Eurojust, the KLPD, and the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC).
2.- JOINT PRESS RELEASE: ICE AND EUROPOL - WEBSITES SELLING COUNTERFEIT MERCHANDISE TAKEN DOWN BY AUTHORITIES IN EUROPE AND THE USA
Europol Press Release
26 November 2012
WASHINGTON, THE HAGUE, NL — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the European Police Office (Europol) seized 133 domain names today that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online to unsuspecting consumers. For the US 1 person was arrested and $175.000 seized.
The 133 domain names seized are part of Project Cyber Monday 3, an iteration of Operation In Our Sites (IOS).[1] These websites duped consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods as part of the holiday shopping season. The operation was coordinated by the ICE HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center)[2] in Washington, D.C. for the US and by Europol in Europe.
In addition to seizing domain names with a top-level domain (TLD) controlled by U.S. Registries, the IPR Center partnered with Europol to execute coordinated seizures of foreign-based TLDs such as .be, .eu, .dk, .fr, .ro, and .uk. This effort is titled Project Transatlantic.
During this operation, federal US law enforcement officers made undercover purchases of a host of products including professional sports jerseys, DVD sets, cologne, and a variety of clothing, jewellery and luxury goods from online retailers who were suspected of selling counterfeit products. If the copyright holders confirmed that the purchased products were counterfeit or otherwise illegal, seizure orders for the domain names of the websites that sold the goods were obtained from federal magistrate judges.
"This operation is a great example of the tremendous cooperation between ICE and our international partners at the IPR Center,” says ICE Director John Morton. "That partnership enables us to go after criminals who are duping unsuspecting shoppers all over the world. This is not an American problem, it is a global one and it is a fight we must win.”
The IPR Center and Europol received leads from various trademark holders regarding the infringing websites. Those leads were disseminated to ten investigating HSI field offices in Baltimore, Denver, El Paso, Houston, Newark, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Paul, Buffalo, and Ventura (Ca) and to the investigating Europol member countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.
“Europol became member of the Intellectual Property Right Coordination Center (IPR Center) this year and I am glad to be able to announce these operational successes. IPR theft is not a harmless or victimless crime. It can cause serious health and safety risks and it undermines our economy,” says Mr Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol.
The domain names are now in the custody of the respective governments of the participating countries. Visitors typing those domain names into their web browsers will now find a banner that notifies them of the seizure and educates them about the federal crime of willful copyright infringement.
In addition to the domain name seizures, Cyber Monday 3 identified PayPal accounts utilised by the infringing websites. Proceeds received through the identified PayPal accounts are currently being targeted for seizure by the investigating HSI field offices.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the opportunity to work closely with HSI to shut down criminals targeting our customers and our brand just as the holiday season takes off,” said Tod Cohen, Government Relations for eBay Inc. “PayPal and eBay Inc. pride ourselves in going above and beyond in the fight against the illegal online trafficking of counterfeit goods by partnering with law enforcement and rights owners globally, and we hope that this is fair warning to criminals that the internet is not a safe place to try and sell fake goods.”
[1] IOS is a sustained law enforcement initiative that began more than two years ago to protect consumers by targeting the sale of counterfeit merchandise on the Internet. These 101 domain name seizures bring the total number of IOS domain names seized to 1630 since the operation began in June 2010. Since that time, the seizure banner has received more than 110 million individual views.
[2] The IPR Center is one of the U.S. government's key weapons in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy. The IPR Center uses the expertise of its 21 member agencies, including Europol, to share information, develop initiatives, coordinate enforcement actions and conduct investigations related to IP theft. Through this strategic interagency partnership, the IPR Center protects the public's health and safety, the U.S. economy and the war fighters.
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