New York prosecutors indicted five Eastern European men on Monday in an extensive credit-card fraud operation that netted the defendants at least US$4 million from some 95,000 stolen card numbers.
The indictment caps the third phase of a four-year investigation involving law enforcement agencies in the U.S., the Czech Republic, Greece and Ukraine, according to information released by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
A total of 17 defendants have been indicted, although the last five defendants were only revealed this week due to extradition procedures.
Details of the case provide further evidence for the existence of a sophisticated underground economy, with cybercriminals who specialize in specific aspects of fraud in a chain of criminal activity. Hackers steal credit card numbers, sell them to middle men who specialize in converting those accounts into cash and goods using a variety of money-laundering methods.
More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/9137403/
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The indictment caps the third phase of a four-year investigation involving law enforcement agencies in the U.S., the Czech Republic, Greece and Ukraine, according to information released by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
A total of 17 defendants have been indicted, although the last five defendants were only revealed this week due to extradition procedures.
Details of the case provide further evidence for the existence of a sophisticated underground economy, with cybercriminals who specialize in specific aspects of fraud in a chain of criminal activity. Hackers steal credit card numbers, sell them to middle men who specialize in converting those accounts into cash and goods using a variety of money-laundering methods.
More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/9137403/
