International effort breaks up card-fraud ring

[shinnok]

International effort breaks up card-fraud ring
Published: 2008-05-22

U.S. prosecutors announced this week that various law-enforcement agencies, along with authorities in Romania and other countries, charged 33 people with a broad range of crimes related to their alleged counterfeiting of debit and credit cards using information gathered from victims through phishing.

An indictment released on Monday charges nine U.S. resident and citizens, 22 Romanian citizens and two foreign nationals with taking part in the criminal group, which allegedly used spammed e-mail messages to lure victims to a fake Web site, where they were urged to enter in financial details. The U.S. members of the group then created counterfeit credit and debit cards using the information, withdrawing millions of dollars from thousands of cards, the indictment charged.

In the past, the onerous task of prosecuting criminals across national borders has kept many criminals safe, but U.S. authorities have made it a priorities to build bridges with law enforcement officials in other nations.

"International organized crime poses a serious threat not only to the United States and Romania, but to all nations," Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip said during a press conference in Romania, according to a statement announcing the indictment. "Criminals who exploit the power and convenience of the Internet do not recognize national borders; therefore our efforts to prevent their attacks cannot end at our borders either."

U.S. law enforcement has increasingly pursued credit- and debit-card fraudsters. In March, New York City prosecutors announced that 38 people had been indicted as part of a crackdown on a large identity-theft and counterfeit credit-card ring that operated in several parts of the United States as well as China and the Far East. Last September, U.S. prosecutors In announced that former security research Max Ray Butler had been charged in a five-count indictment with running a scheme to hack into computers at financial institutions and credit-card processing centers, stealing account information and selling the data to others.

In the latest case, specific parts of the group executed different aspects of the counterfeiting and cash-withdrawal scheme. Romanian suppliers used phishing attacks to gather financial information, which they then sent to U.S.-based cashiers, according to the indictment. The cashiers used magnetic-stripe encoding hardware to create counterfeit credit and debit cards, which were then given to runner which checked out if the fake cards could be used to withdraw cash. A portion of the take was then sent back to the suppliers.

The nine U.S.-based defendants charged in the indictment includes three U.S. citizens, five U.S. residents from Vietnam, and a U.S. resident from Cambodia. The indictment also charges a Mexican national currently in custody on immigration charges and a Pakistani citizens of being part of the conspiracy. Twenty-two Romanian citizens have been charged for taking part in the criminal organization.

sursa: http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/742

more: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/May/08_odag_434.html

[best man]

lol...chiar crede cineva ca sperie cu toate amenintarile ce le lanseaza publicului??? S-au trezit americanii sa ameninte in loc sa-si puna la punct sistemul bancar care este dintre cele mai vulnerabile de pe glob...Cu asta poate reusesc sa mai creasca pretul unui dump de la 5 $ la 10$