US Charges 60 for Laundering Zeus Trojan Funds
US Charges 60 for Laundering Zeus Trojan Funds
Posted 10/01/2010 at 3:41am
| by Pulkit Chandna
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The proverbially long arms of the law have caught up with more than 100 suspected beneficiaries of the money-stealing Zeus trojan in the US and the UK. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 60 people in the States have been charged with using the Zeus Trojan program to steal money from online bank accounts.
Most of those charged by the US authorities, including many Russian nationals, acted as “money mules,” or money-laundering agents, merely concerned with moving stolen funds for their Zeus-armed clients.
“The mule organization typically recruited mules from Eastern Europe who were either planning to travel to or were already present in the United States on J1 visas,” reads one of the complaints in the matter.
"The mules kept a portion of the fraudulent proceeds for themselves -- usually 8 to 10 percent -- and transferred the rest to other participants in the fraudulent scheme."
The trojan, which mainly spreads through phishing and drive-by download attacks, is said to have helped thugs rake in over $200 million since 2006.
Image Credit: Allspammedup
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Silencer
October 01, 2010 at 6:28am
I'm surprised so many people were involved. And I'm also surprised that they kept some of the money, but passed on the rest to others? Wow. Did the functioning of the trojan force them to share the loot? Or was sharing important to keeping it going? Weird.
Also, did this have something to do with LinkedIn?
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