Slashdot Mirror
Phishers Arrested In Eastern Europe and US
An anonymous reader writes to let us know about the roundup of a phishing gang by the FBI and authorities in Poland and Romania. 18 arrests were made in what the FBI calls "Operation Cardkeeper." The gang has allegedly been selling stolen identities and information on credit cards and bank accounts since at least 2004. To remind us what a drop in the bucket such international operations are, the article says: "The Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry consortium, said more than 10,000 phishing Web sites were active on the Internet in August, about double the number of sites in January."
We read about these busts quite frequently, but I wonder what percentage of these guys are actually convicted and jailed.
The Washington Post is slashdotted, so I can't read the article, but I doubt this is just a "drop in the bucket". A group of 18 is likely to have more than a single phishing website. More than likely they'd have over 100. That's still just 1% of the sites out there, but it's at least something. Also, if there were other people in this phishing group, those people would be stongly deterred from phishing in the future. It also serves as a preventative against additional people getting into phishing. At least something is being done about these crimes.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
If we can count them, why can't we shut them down?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
These people may not have committed a crime in their country but that is what extradition is for.
I agree completely with you that the best solution is educating internet users however this justifies the criminal behavior of these phishers not at all.