NEW YORK (AFP) – US prosecutors on Thursday unveiled charges against more than 60 people in an eastern European-based cybercrime network using computer viruses to target US bank accounts.
Federal prosecutors in New York said the defendants were "involved in a global cybercrime scheme that used the Zeus Trojan and other Internet viruses to steal millions of dollars from US bank accounts." The alleged crime ring had hackers in eastern Europe using a "malicious computer program to obtain access to the bank accounts of small and mid-sized businesses and municipal entities in the United States," according to the criminal complaint against three of the suspects. "In addition, individuals, known as 'money mules' or 'mules,' were recruited to open bank accounts in the United States, often with fake passports, but sometimes under their own names... to receive fraudulent wire transfers from the Victim Accounts," the complaint said. The scheme allegedly sought to defraud banks and businesses of at least three million dollars, according to prosecutors. The charges followed Tuesday's arrests of 19 people in Britain on computer crimes charges. In New York, prosecutors said the scheme began with hackers using Zeus viruses to infect the computers of dozens of victims. The virus activates when the user unwittingly clicks on a link or attachment in a seemingly legitimate email. "Once installed, the Zeus Trojan allows computer hackers to secretly monitor the victim's computer activity, recording, among other things, the victim's bank account numbers, passwords, and authentication information," the complaint said. To retrieve the stolen money, the ring "typically recruited mules from eastern Europe who were either planning to travel to, or were already present in, the United States" on visitor's visas. Mules then opened accounts, sometimes under fake names, received money stolen by the hackers and made quick withdrawals "before the fraud could be detected by the victims or the banks." Mules typically kept up to 10 percent of the transfer as a payment and transferred the rest to the crime ring. One of the suspected mules, a Russian named Yulia Klepikova, who went by a half dozen aliases including Tulus Corina-Jeromoise, opened a string of US bank accounts using fake Belgian, British and other passports, prosecutors allege. She then allegedly withdrew tens of thousands of dollars in money that had been transferred to these accounts from the hackers' victims. @yahoo Regards Sandeep Thakur -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nforceit" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nforceit?hl=en-GB.
