Original URL: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/12/20/arrests_in_money_mules_scam/
Dutch police have arrested 14 suspects who allegedly lent their bank accounts at ABN Amro to cybercriminals in Russia and Ukraine. After being recruited by the fraudsters, the mules received funds taken from phishing scams, which they transferred overseas.
The twelve men and two women were bailed today.
Customers of ABN Amro were lured to bogus websites in Hong Kong which were set up to gather security details. Money stolen from their accounts was then transferred to Russia and other countries. The collaborators were generously remunerated, the Prosecutor’s Office said today.
The cybercriminals often used IP addresses through Russian Business Network based in St Petersburg, an ISP notorious for hosting illegal and dubious businesses, including child pornography, phishing and malware distribution sites.
ABN Amro has been inundated with security issues this year. In April the bank compensated at least four customers for undisclosed amounts taken from their bank accounts. In September a former employee of Citi's ABN Amro Mortgage group leaked the personal information, including social security numbers, of more than 5,000 customers via a peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing network. ®
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