While Courtyard Wine Cellars may have only opened in May 2025, visitors could be forgiven for thinking it is a longstanding fixture of the Covent Garden marketplace. Set across seven vaulted, arched cellars dating back to the 1830s, it is discovered by descending the stairs into the central atrium of the market. These brick-lined underground spaces were initially built to provide cool, stable conditions for the fruit, vegetable, and flower stalls that once made this London's central produce market.
While the fraudulent advertisements appeared to send users to the websites of legitimate banks, victims were in fact redirected to fake bank websites controlled by the criminals. When victims entered their login credentials to access their bank accounts, the criminals harvested those credentials through a malicious software program embedded in the fake website. The criminals then used those bank credentials on the corresponding legitimate bank websites to access victims' bank accounts and drain their funds.