A man in his 20s is suspected of carrying out hundreds of payment fraud crimes, according to Finnish law enforcement authorities.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Southwestern Finland police department reported on Monday that they have wrapped up a preliminary investigation of the case.
Authorities believe the man was behind more than 400 payment fraud crimes.
Results of the preliminary investigation indicated that the suspect used a tactic called phishing to obtain the personal banking details of his victims, most of which were S-Bank customers, according to police.
Authorities investigated the case as suspected payment fraud crimes.
Phishing involves sending fake emails or messages that look like they are from official companies or financial institutions, in efforts to convince victims to offer details about things like credit card numbers or passwords.
The suspect allegedly directed his victims to a fake bank website, prompting them to log in with their codes and then used them to log into their accounts himself.
Then, the suspect used the passwords to access the victims' bank accounts, allegedly stealing more than one million euros from the victims, according to authorities.
Authorities first looked into the case after noticing a significant increase in the number of reported phishing attempts targeting S-Bank customers.
Police also suspect that the man received help from several accomplices in the crimes.
According to the NBI, victims in Finland lost a total of around 10 million euros in internet-aided bank fraud schemes.
