FBI Cautions about Scammers Transferring Funds into China

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, cyber-criminals who compromise U.S enterprises' Internet banking credentials are dispatching illegitimate funds through wire transfer into the accounts of trade and economic firms of China situated close to the Russian boundary, published Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in news dated April 26, 2011.

It's reported that the alert comes from the IC3 of FBI that traced several fake transfers made to businesses based in China's Heilongjiang province. The scammers apparently utilize malicious programs like Zeus or Spybot for inserting malware into targeted computers for capturing banking credentials.

During March 2010 to April 2011, the FBI spotted 20 cases wherein SMBs (small-and-medium sized businesses) in the United States lost their Internet banking information to scammers so they could execute the above mentioned wire-transfers. Beginning from April 2011, there were about $20m worth of attempted scams, with losses amounting to $11m actually accruing to victims.

Stated IC3, the illegal fund transmissions varied between $50,000 and $985,000, with the tendency being over $900,000; however, the cyber-criminals were more able to get the funds whilst they transferred less than $500,000. V3.co.uk published this in news on April 26, 2011.

Moreover, as per IC3, whilst the transfers were executed effectively, the funds were instantly withdrawn from the victims' financial accounts alternatively illegitimately wired out from the same, IC3 further stated.

Computer specialists have determined that in a few instances the malware programs used are Spybot, Backdoor.bot or Zeus. Further according to one victim, when his infected PC's hard drive was compromised, its data was deleted through remote means prior to the IT Department initiating an analysis.

At the present juncture, nobody knows the person responsible for the above illegitimate transfers, or whether the transfers were destined for the Chinese firms' accounts, whether the transfers occurred to some other place alternatively, the reason playing behind the genuine firms' receipt of the illegitimate transfers.

Meanwhile, IC3 cautions that banks need to inform their clients in the business industry about any doubtful operations of wire-transfer with the Chinese trade and economic firms in the cities namely Fuyuan, Raohe, Dongning, Tongjiang and Jixi City.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 5/3/2011