US charges seven foreigners in Internet fraud scheme

NEW YORK: US prosecutors have charged seven foreigners in a massive internet fraud scheme in which over four million computers across 100 countries, including those of American agencies and NASA, were infected with malicious software and $14 million were made through fake online advertising.

Six Estonian nationals Vladimir Tsastsin, Timur Gerassimenko, Dmitri Jegorov, Valeri Aleksejev, Konstantin Poltev and Anton Ivanov were arrested and taken into custody on Wednesday in Estonia.

The US Attorney’s Office will seek their extradition to America. The seventh defendant, Andrey Taame, a Russian national, remains at large.

Terming the case the “tip of the iceberg,” US Attorney for New York Preet Bharara said of the four million computers infected, at least 500,000 were in the US, including those belonging to agencies such as NASA.