An FBI investigation has led to 17 alleged members of an
international phishing gang being arrested in Poland and the
US.
Four arrests were made in the US and 13 people were apprehended
in Poland. More than 20 FBI offices are said to have been involved
in the investigation into the global identity theft ring, which is
alleged to have carried out a phishing attack against a major
financial institution between August and October 2004.
As part of Operation Cardkeeper, FBI agents worked with local
authorities to identify a criminal ring which was allegedly selling
stolen identities, credit card and bank account information.
The suspected ringleader of the gang, a Polish man known as
Blindroot, is said to have hacked into third-party computers to
rent out web space to other criminals who wanted to host bogus
websites for the purposes of phishing.
The US suspects were caught with cards and machines used to
encode data onto blank credit cards. When authorities attempted to
search premises, one suspect tried to flush counterfeit credit
cards down the toilet.
In addition to the arrests, raids were reportedly carried out in
New York, Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Georgia and Ohio, and search
warrants were served on three other suspects under investigation in
Romania.
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