International phishing gang arrested

Seventeen members of gang arrested following FBI investigation

Seventeen members of an alleged international phishing gang have been arrested following an FBI investigation.

More than 20 FBI offices were involved in the investigation into the global identity theft ring, which is claimed to have carried out a phishing attack against a major financial institution between August and October 2004.

In the investigation called 'Operation Cardkeeper', FBI agents worked with local authorities to identify a criminal ring which was allegedly selling stolen identities, credit card and bank account information.

The suspected ringleader of the gang is said to have hacked into third party computers to rent out webspace to other criminals who wanted to host bogus websites for the purposes of phishing.

Four arrests were made in the US and 13 people were apprehended in Poland. The American suspects were caught with cards and machines used to encode data onto blank credit cards and when authorities attempted to search the premises, one suspect tried to flush counterfeit credit cards down the toilet.

In addition to the arrests, raids were reportedly carried out in New York, Texas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Georgia and Ohio, and search warrants served on three other suspects under investigation in Romania.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said: 'The authorities fighting computer crime should be applauded for working together across international boundaries to break up these criminal gangs.'

'Phishing and identity theft are global problems, and countries need to work more closely with each other to bring the bad guys to justice. Although the news of these arrests is good, it's only the tip of the iceberg as many other phishers are still at large,' said Cluley.

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