Cyber Criminals Arrested on Accusations of Stealing $15 Million from Banks

Romanian law enforcement arrested a cyber-criminal gang accused of stealing over $15 million from banks and financial institutions, according to news reports.

The 25 men have allegedly been hacking banks and cloning payment cards stolen from Puerto Rico and Muscat (Oman).

In 2013, hackers stole payment card data from large corporations, cloned the cards and used them to withdraw money from ATMs in various countries including the US, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the UK.

According to Romanian prosecutors, the gang made the withdrawals in batches, during a short period of time.

“On Feb. 20, 2013, for example, members of the gang withdrew $9 million from ATMs in Japan. On Dec. 2 that same year, the gang made around 4,200 withdrawals from ATMs across 15 Romanian cities, totaling $5 million,” according to CSO online.