US, NY Bust 92 Mules In 'ZeuS Trojan' Crime Ring 97
Following on the 19 ZeuS botnet arrests in the UK, adeelarshad82 and other readers sent word that US and New York officials have unsealed more than 90 indictments of money mules and others accused of helping siphon more than $3M from 5 banks and dozens of individuals, and sending it overseas. The Manhattan US Attorney announced charges against 37 individuals and New York charged 55. Most of those indicted are foreign students who came to the US on exchange visitor visas. Most are from Russia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, or Belarus. Here is the FBI's lengthy press release. A security blogger has put up Facebook party photos of some of the indicted individuals who are still at large.
Money Mule Groups (Score:5, Informative)
After posting my email address publicly on careerbuilder.com, I started getting lots of emails advertising money mule positions. Here's one of their websites [centrumusa-group.net], in case you wanted to know what these groups are like.
Serious Crimes + a Matrix inspired FBI logo (Score:4, Informative)
30 years in prison; fine of $1,000,000 or twice the gross gain or loss; and restitution
20 years in prison; fine of $500,000 or twice the amount laundered; and restitution
15 years in prison; fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss; and restitution
10 years in prison; fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss; and restitution
The charges are bank fraud, wire fraud, false use of passports and false use of identification.
Plus, check out the FBI Cyber branch logo, obviously inspired by "The Matrix": http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/images/nyfo093010_5.jpg [fbi.gov]
Crime doens't pay well (Score:5, Informative)
Despite the popular opinion, when you actually research it you find crime doesn't pay much better than honest work. If you are doing simple scut work, you get paid low wages, legal or illegal. Sure there are crime lords that make a lot, the heads of the drug cartels are filthy rich... But then that would be just like the people who created legal business empires. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos, etc all amazingly rich, richer than the drug lords, and did the same basic thing: Created a successful empire selling what people want.
All in all, crime doesn't pay all that well, especially compared to the risks. It only pays well if you are higher up, just like in the legit world. You may hear about some mid level drug dealer that makes $200k and say "Wow, crime paid well," until you realize a mid level executive can make the same.
Capitalism doesn't seem to suspend the rules for illegal enterprise.
It means the charges can be presented at court (Score:5, Informative)
An indictment is something you have to get in "capital, or otherwise infamous crimes," according to the 5th amendment. It often happens after arrest, but does not have to. Without an indictment, such a crime cannot go to court. It is a laugh test, basically. Fairly low standard of evidence (legally sufficient evidence and reasonable cause to believe) but makes sure people don't get dragged to court for a major crime if things are flimsy.
Most states don't do indictments except in serious cases, but the feds do them for everything. Had a friend sit on a federal grand jury and they get an indictment for every single illegal immigration case. Never mind they are always 100% straight forward, they still get an indictment. The Feds don't bring something to trial without getting an indictment, even trivial stuff. Just how they do it.
Re:Bad for exchange students (Score:1, Informative)
1. That's all nationalities, ass
I seem to recall this rather ridiculous reactionary period in American history where a lot of people started ordering "freedom fries" and had a disdain for all things French. Perhaps you remember too... it was back when France refused to send troops to Iraq to look for those still-not-found WMDs.
Perhaps the Americans really could have used the French in Iraq. Maybe those WMDs would have been found by now. Oh, and don't forget Poland!