US: Dozens charged in global computer virus scam

NEW YORK: Computer hackers in eastern Europe who used computer viruses to steal usernames and passwords teamed up with associates who opened bank accounts in the U.S. to snatch at least $3 million from American bank accounts, authorities said Thursday in announcing charges against more than 60 people.

Some of the defendants were charged in court papers unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with conspiracy to commit bank fraud for the invasion of dozens of victims' accounts, according to federal and state prosecutors in New York.

In a series of criminal complaints filed in the case, the FBI said the scheme originated with information gleaned from computers through the use of a virus that could access the bank accounts of small and mid-sized businesses and municipal entities in the U.S.

The FBI said the program was known as an Internet banking Trojan, which can steal computer access data including usernames and passwords for bank accounts, email accounts and social-networking websites. The program would gain access to the computer when a victim clicked on a link or opened a file attached to a seemingly legitimate e-mail message.

Once the program was engaged, computer hackers could secretly monitor the victim's computer activity, enabling them to obtain bank account numbers, passwords and authentication information as the victim typed them into the infected computer, the FBI said.
The scheme relied on individuals who were known as ``money mules'' in the United States to actually steal money, the FBI said.

Agents wrote in the complaints that individuals from eastern Europe who were already present in the U.S. or who were planning to go there on student visas were recruited to open hundreds of bank accounts so that money snatched from other bank accounts using stolen passwords could be transferred there.

The mules usually kept about 8 to 10 percent of the stolen money for themselves before passing the rest along to other participants in the scheme, the FBI said.

More information was expected to be released at a news conference Thursday afternoon.