Massive US, Egypt ID Theft Scheme Bust

October 7th, 2009

According to the Associated Press, the FBI and Egyptian authorities have charged almost 100 people involved in an identity theft racket which stole money from a large number of bank accounts.

Operation Phish Phry Busts by U.S. and Egypt

Phishing appears to be the primary method used to contact victims. The phishing emails directed recipients to a fake banking web site (likely a “scraped” site, which is a fraudulent copy of the real banking site) where their user name and password is requested. Once the identity thieves have the victims banking credentials they logged into the victims bank accounts and withdrew the victim’s money.

More than 50 people in the US were charged under the indictment and another 47 in Egypt. 33 of the 50 in the US were arrested Wednesday in what the FBI claim is the largest number of defendants charged in a cyber crime case.

Individuals can learn how to report phishing emails to the APWG (Anti Phishing Working Group) which is committed to wiping out Internet scams and fraud.

See full AP story here