FBI arrest 33 in the U.S. connected with phishing scam
October 8, 2009
The FBI has arrested 33 people this week in one of the biggest cybercrime operations ever to have taken place. The anti-phishing operation was an international crackdown on a gang of criminals who have been setting up bogus websites on the internet in an attempt to get members of the public to disclose personal information along with information about bank accounts and other financial data. The criminals were then using this data to siphon off funds into illegally set up bank accounts.
The FBI named the action, Operation Phish Phry and has been tracking the gang since January 2007. As part of the operation the FBI say that authorities in Egypt have also arrested 47 co-conspirators.
The Egyptian branch of the scam was setting up websites that encouraged customers from the financial institutions of Wells Fargo and Bank of America to give away their account details and passwords. Funds were then siphoned out of those accounts and sent to new accounts at the institutions that had been set up by the American arm of the scam.
Although both institutions have yet to comment it is thought that even though around $1.5 million had been removed from customers accounts, not all of the money had actually been withdrawn by the criminals. An FBI spokesperson said this was because the FBI and the banks had managed to identify most of the dummy accounts before the money was removed.
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