Mules Arrested for Involvement in Phishing Attacks on ABN AMRO

The Dutch authorities have detained 14 ABN AMRO clients accused of permitting the cyber criminals to access their bank accounts with the intention of hiding and transferring money stolen from other clients of the bank.

However, the two women and 12 men were compensated by the cybercriminals of Russia and Ukraine for their services. It means they actually did not pilfer the information on their own rather they performed like mules - hoarding and ultimately transmitting the stolen money abroad to Russia and many other nations.

Sophos, the security and control agency, has expressed its appreciation on detaining of 14 suspects by the Dutch authorities. The Global Director of SophosLabs, Mark Harris, stated that a tough message has been sent by the Dutch police to cyber criminals that no contribution to such illegal activities will be tolerated. Even though the 14 suspects might have not actually performed the phishing assaults themselves, they have performed an important role in the offence by permitting the fraudsters for accessing their bank accounts, reported darkREADING on December 20, 2007.

But under such instances, it might be difficult to prove the intentional participation of the account holders as they can easily said to have fallen the prey to identity scam. However, the arrests signify an important move in the appropriate direction and must prevent anybody intending to make fast bucks by engaging under such activities.

The brains behind such plots form phishing websites to trick new ABN AMRO clients into entering false websites of ABN AMRO. They then captured the authentication data of the victims, exploited their accounts, and finally stole money from them. As per the reports, various phishing sites appeared to have been hosted by the notorious servers of Russian Business Network (RBN).

Sophos experts notify an increasing trend among the cyber crooks to try and employ common people to assist them in carrying their illegitimate profits across the globe. SophosLabs discovered an abnormal scam of 419 e-mails in December that instead of presenting the usual assurance of lottery, grant or award money, professed to arrive from the Red Cross of America and offered the job of a 'donation collector' to the recipient, taking and giving money to the needy people for different EU projects.

Related article: Malaysia Experiencing Rise in Cyber Crimes

» SPAMfighter News - 1/5/2008