The global crime ring that hit ATMs in 280 cities worldwide last year simultaneously for $9 million have allegedly been busted.
A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted eight men in connection with the scheme, including five Estonians, one Russian, one Moldovan and one unidentified man. Prosecutors allege that the men "used sophisticated hacking techniques" to defeat the company's encryption system. The scam, which hit RBS WorldPay last November, involved an elaborate plan in which the attackers first bypassed the encryption on the debit cards, which RBS WorldPay issues to customers for employee payroll purposes. They then raised the limits on the accounts attached to the cards.U.S. Takes Down $9 Million RBS WorldPay Hacking Ring (via /.)Once that was done, the gang then allegedly "provided a network of 'cashers' with 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards, which were used to withdraw more than $9 million from more than 2,100 ATMs in at least 280 cities worldwide, including cities in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada. The $9 million loss occurred within a span of less than 12 hours," the Department of Justice said in a statement on the indictments released Tuesday.
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Sounds like an awful lot of effort for the amount of money they made off with.
well if you're broke and smart, or have a lot of time (or if you're Estonian I suppose), what else are you gonna do?
I'm just glad to know we still have somewhat intelligent bank robbers these days, as opposed to these guys.
by which I meant, these guys:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/02/bank-robbers-demand.html
When the government is spinning up a mere $9m this hard, you know they're desperate for approval from somebody.
It's good to know that they caught all eight people who were in those 280 cities that day.