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FBI Cracks "Largest Phishing Case Ever"
nk497 writes "The FBI and Egyptian authorities have arrested 100 people in what they're calling 'the largest international phishing case ever conducted' as part of a wide-scale investigation called Operation Phish Phry. The criminals used phishing to get access to hundreds of bank accounts, stealing $1.5 million. 'This international phishing ring had a significant impact on two banks and caused huge headaches for hundreds, perhaps thousands of bank customers,' said Acting US Attorney George S. Cardona."
....talk about damage control!
Always been more of a sushi guy myself, guess i'll have to wait for operation bonzai.
The one about "Why the FBI Director Doesn't Bank Online"?
Bark less. Wag more.
Someone tell the FBI director it's safe for him to log on again.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
They spent 2+ years of US and Egyptian government resources to prosecute 100 people for tricking other people out of 1.5 million dollars. They will spend more resources on each of the 100 peoples' court cases. If their cases hold up in court they will spend more government resources to keep them in jail for up to 20 years each. They didn't state a dollar amount spent on this initiative in TFA, but wouldn't it be more efficient to use that money to educate online banking users on how to avoid phishing scans?
Shouldn't this have been handled by the Department of Phisheries?
I think Fried Phish would of been better.
I was pretty religious about forwarding all the phishing emails I got purporting to be from Bank of America to BOA's fraud line.
Lately I'm getting swamped by IRS phishes "notice of underreported income" (perhaps 100 of them so far), that I've been sending to the phishing mailbox at irs.gov. Hopefully that'll help close that particular scheme.
How about capital punishment for widespread internet fraud???
I swear I would have never believe that the FBI had it in them to pick a name as cool sounding as "Operation Phish Phry".
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
This is not a popular idea and most say it is a fail, but we need to start charging for each email sent, not much, but enough so that zombie box owners will wake up when their next monthly bill arrives. But the email charge must be ultimately paid by the ISPs who are the actual gateways onto the net. This way they too have an incentive to stop the flow of spam. And since the ISP must pay or be disconnected, third-world spam would dry up too. Use the money generated for backbone maintenance/improvement. Flame on.
Conservative, mod down for violating
Have you learned nothing at your work? The FBI was 'on the case' since 2007, probably outsourced the real work to some poor suckers in IT and just sat on their asses for two years. Until Mueller gave them an angry call why he was still being phished while they were 'fixing the problem'. From that moment they had to produce results fast to please the boss... they probably just arrested the first guys on the watch list compiled in 2007.
They let this go on, because they think the cost of ruining a few lives is ok, as long as in the end they make their bust and all is ok in coptown. Problem is , real time transactions are happening while they study the case, and letting 1.5 million slip through in order to follow the trace back to the top. Like a guy holding a camera while someone is being mugged by a lynch mob and doing nothing, should there not also be consequences especially when FEDS (of all people) let something like this happen,
when they have the power to stop it in its tracks....instead of letting it go on, and on, how long was this case going on for...?
Hard decisions, but sometimes the ends do not justify the means.
I had a ticket once for running through a stop sign, although it was covered almost 100% behind a tree, as I mentioned this to the cop, they told me to just say that in court as they knew many people would run through, instead of just telling the city to fix the problem....however I felt very frustrated, should there have been a kid playing nearby and I had not seen the sign, I would have maybe run him over by accident, then the cop would have been responsible for his life being lost, because instead of directing traffic (like when an intersection is burned out) they were using the hidden stop sign to generate revenue....very depressing!