On Monday, technology news site ComputerWorld reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations unit had raided the house of two Vietnamese Winona State University exchange students and seized their documents and computer equipment.
The 22-year-old students, Tram Vo and Khoi Van, are suspected of working as money transfer mules for a Vietnam-based international cybercrime ring, having made more than US$1.2 million selling software, video games and Apple's iTunes gift cards on eBay purchased with stolen credit card numbers, the report stated, citing the affidavit filed in support of the search warrant issued for the raid.
Both of them controlled more than 180 eBay accounts and more than 360 PayPal accounts, which were opened using stolen identities, noted a separate report by the Star Tribune, a Minnesota, U.S.-based spreadsheet.
ComputerWorld explained that the students had posed as eBay sellers using the stolen identities to sell discounted products such as Rosetta Stone software, video games, textbooks and Apple iTunes gift cards.
When a legitimate eBay buyer orders the products, they would purchase the items from a third-party merchant using stolen credit card accounts and request for the items to be sent to the buyer. However, the merchant would not able to claim the payment of the products as the owner of the stolen credit card will inform the relevant bank that the payment was an unauthorized transaction, the report stated.
Online retailers such as eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Apple, Dell and Verizon Wireless were among the high-profile victims, noted Star Tribune.
Cybercrime gangs' growing sophistication
The DHS investigation on the Vietnamese cybercrime outfit, code-named "Operation eMule", began in September 2009, according to the abovementioned affidavit. In the document, DHS Special Agent Daniel Schwarz wrote: "The criminal ring makes online purchases from e-commerce merchants using stolen credit card information and then utilizes an elaborate network of mules based in the United States. The criminals get stolen credit or bank card numbers by hacking PCs or databases. In some cases, they simply buy the stolen personal information from underground online marketplaces."
According to ComputerWorld, money mule networks are needed by cybercrime organizations to get the stolen money out of the country, which is the "hard part". Mules working for the Vietnamese organization, for instance, would get their orders via a secured Web site that is available only to "vetted members", Schwartz said. He added that the money involved in such crimes is "estimated to exceed hundreds of millions of dollars".
Such sophisticated cybercrime rings are on the rise, too.
In October last year, authorities arrested more than 100 people in the U.S. and U.K. in connection with another money mule operation, which was operating out of Ukraine, the report stated. Then, scammers hacked into bank accounts, transferred money around and used mules to move the money offshore via services provided by payment companies such as Western Union.
A ZDNet Asia report in July last year also revealed that a Russian check-counterfeiting ring had netted US$9 million through a combination of malware, botnets, virtual private networks and money mules recruited online.
(ZdNetAsia.com)
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