Brazilian Police Arrest
31 For Online Banking
Theft
Brazil's federal police
on Friday arrested 31
people for alleged
online theft of money in
southeastern Minas
Gerais state.
The anti-theft sweep
involved 160 agents in
the states of Minas
Gerais, Rio de Janeiro
and Mato Grosso do Sul
and in the federal
district of Brasilia,
police said.
The suspects, charged
with stealing account
passwords and other
banking data, were
reportedly middle-class
youngsters, aged between
22 and 25. The ring was
led by a 23-year-old man
living in Betim in the
metropolitan region of
Belo Horizonte, the
state's capital city.
Some of the victims had
up to 8.000 Reais
(us$4.500 dollars) taken
from their accounts,
while each suspect stole
an average of 600.000
Reais (us$343.000
dollars) every year from
the banks, according to
police.
The hackers of the ring
broke into Internet
banking systems and
conduct such
transactions as
withdraws, transfers and
payments, with
information stolen from
the users, police said.
The ring would send
e-mails to victims,
supposedly on behalf of
companies. When the
users opened the
message, malware was
installed in the
computers. If they
accessed their online
banking data, the
software would scan the
secret information and
send it to the ring
leader.
The money stolen from
the banks would be
transferred to accounts
of false clients before
ending up in the hands
of ring members.
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