Police and FBI agents yesterday charged nearly 100 people in the
US and Egypt as part of
Operation
Phish Phry, one the largest cyber fraud phishing cases to
date.
The defendants targeted US banks and stole about $1.5m from
hundreds and possibly thousands of account holders, the FBI said
yesterday.
More than 50 individuals in California, Nevada, and North
Carolina, and nearly 50 Egyptians were charged with crimes
including computer fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money
laundering, and aggravated identify theft.
FBI director Robert Mueller described the events as a "cyber
arms race," where law enforcement and criminals competed to stay a
step ahead of each other.
The two-year investigation was led by the FBI's Los Angeles
office, and included the Secret Service, the Electronics Crimes
Task Force in Los Angeles, state and local law enforcement, and our
Egyptian counterparts. This was the first joint cyber investigation
between Egypt and the US, he said.
Mueller said it was hard to tell what investigators were getting
into at the start of a case. "Something that looks like an ordinary
phishing scam may be an attempt by a terrorist group to raise
funding for an operation," he said. Money appeared to be the
driving motive in Operation Phish Phry.
Mueller said cybercriminals still outnumbered cybercops, even
with strong cooperation between national and international law
enforcement agencies.
The Anti-Phishing Working
Group, a industry consortium, reported that 49,084 unique
phishing web sites were set up in June, the second most recorded in
a single month.
Mueller called on people to protect their home computers with
firewalls, anti-virus software, and strong passwords. "We all have
a responsibility to protect the infrastructure that protects the
world," Mueller said.