aelius Posted January 3, 2017 Report Posted January 3, 2017 Symantec’s assistance paves way for long-running FBI investigation into gang that stole up to $35 million from victims. Three Romanian men have been indicted in the US for allegedly operating a longstanding fraud operation known as Bayrob that conned victims out of millions of dollars. Bogdan Nicolescu (aka “Masterfraud”, aka “mf”); Danet Tiberiu (aka “Amightysa”, aka “amy”); and Radu Miclaus (aka “Minolta”, aka “min”) were arrested by police in Romania earlier this year before being extradited to the US, where they now face multiple charges relating to fraud, identity theft, money laundering, and trafficking in counterfeit goods or services. Our research shows that the Bayrob gang are career cybercriminals, earning a living from online fraud. They specialize in detailed scams and go to great lengths to craft convincing emails and create fake websites, voice messages, and even customer support chatrooms in order to dupe victims. The gang began its career running elaborate cons where it created fake vehicle auctions to defraud victims out of tens of thousands of dollars. It later expanded and diversified with a number of different fraud and malware operations, ranging from credit card theft to cryptocurrency mining using infected computers. The FBI believes that the Bayrob group has stolen at least US$4 million from victims over the past eight years, though the actual total may be up to $35 million. It also established that the group infected between 60,000 and 160,000 computers and sent out 11 million malicious emails. The arrests are the culmination of an eight-year law enforcement investigation which was assisted by Symantec. During this time, Symantec discovered multiple versions of Bayrob malware, collected helpful intelligence data, and witnessed Bayrob as it morphed from online fraud to a 300,000+ botnet for cryptocurrency mining. Symantec succeeded in exposing the gang’s operations, gaining insight into its key players, tactics, malware, and the potential impact and criminal activity undertaken. Read more: https://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/bayrob-three-suspects-extradited-face-charges-us 1 Quote
