More than 60 individuals have been charged in an alleged global conspiracy to steal at least three million dollars from American bank accounts and six million pounds from British bank accounts, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The American investigation is linked to the arrest of 19 individuals in London, as part of an inquiry into an international group of cyber criminals who allegedly stole at least six million pounds, or 9.5 million dollars, from bank accounts in the United Kingdom. Among the British banks involved are HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland. According to court documents in the U.S., computer hackers in Eastern Europe used a computer virus known as Zeus Trojan to access the bank accounts of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as municipal bodies in the U.S. This virus, added as an attachment to seemingly ordinary emails, secretly monitors the computer activities of individuals and steals usernames and passwords, prosecutors state.
Individuals known as money mules were recruited to open bank accounts in the U.S. to receive fraudulent money transfers over the internet, prosecutors reported. These individuals, many of whom were recruited from Eastern Europe or live in the U.S. on student visas, then shared the money with other members of the conspiracy, having opened bank accounts with fake passports, prosecutors add. The individuals named in the federal indictment in Manhattan are citizens of Russia and Moldova. (www.hrt.hr)
