The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

State News

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. To join the discussion, you must first register with Disqus and verify your email address. Once you do, your comments will post automatically. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
November 11, 2009

Feds bust ATM hacking ring accused of stealing $9M

ATLANTA (AP) — Federal authorities say they’ve cracked an international computer hacking ring that stole more than $9 million within 12 hours last November, securing indictments against eight people from Russia, Estonia and Moldova.

The acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia said Tuesday that the ring hacked into payroll debit card information of Royal Bank of Scotland Group in Atlanta.

The group created 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards used to withdraw money from more than 2,100 ATMS in at least 280 cities worldwide, including the United States, acting U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said.

“This investigation has broken the back of one of the most sophisticated computer hacking rings in the world,” Yates said in a statement.

Once the hackers had access to the account data, they raised the limits on the accounts and then provided a network of “cashers” with 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards, she said. The investigation found those “cashers” quickly drained $9.4 million from the payroll account.

Authorities said Sergei Tsurikov 25, of Tallinn, Estonia, was in custody but the U.S. attorney’s office declined to discuss the whereabouts of the others.

Tsurikov; Viktor Pleschuk, 28, of St. Petersburg, Russia; and Oleg Covelin, 28, of Chisnau, Moldova and a fourth individual federal authorities would not identify were each indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Four others — Igor Grudijev, 31; Ronald Tsoi, 31; Evelin Tsoi, 20; and Mihhail Jevgenov, 33 — were each indicted on charges of access device fraud. All four are from Tallinn, Estonia.

FBI Special Agent Greg Jones said the charges send “a clear message to cyber criminals across the globe: Justice will not stop at international borders.”

The investigation is ongoing.

The indictment seeks the forfeiture of $9.4 million from the defendants.

Text Only
State News