US, NY Bust 92 Mules In 'ZeuS Trojan' Crime Ring

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.

Comments

Re:Shit where do I sign up

[Fluffeh]

Even assuming most of these folks won't get anywhere near the full value of their withdrawl, for most of them it was likely the only way that they could get enough money to get overseas, possibly actually get some study done and maybe after their work was done, have a chance to start life in their shitty little eastern european countries.

I have a good few friends in eastern europe. Trust me when I say that life is crap and opportunities are few and far between. While I certainly don't support or encourage crime like this, I can empathize with them.

Re:WTF is wrong with certain countries ?

[symes]

Communities of expertise - once a few people get going, networks develop, success motivates others, and so on. Just like banking tends to be highly localised in a few places.

Re:Shit where do I sign up

[mirix]

Yeah, I suppose that could be true. I'm not amazingly familiar with russian prices (never been there.. yet!) but I've found cost of food and similar staples to be much cheaper in Serbia than in my home (canada), and presume a fair bit of that carries over.

You're right, cars are definitely more expensive. I'm not sure if they still have tariffs on imported vehicles (which are based off an external prices, still..)
Of course.. domestic vehicles are rather cheap, if you want one ;)
Last time in serbia, a yugo was $6k or so tax paid, and around $9k for a lada niva.

But I think the bare necessities (food, shelter) and definitely sin things (liquor, cigs) are /far/ cheaper. I can get a carton of cigs in serbia for less than a pack costs in Canada ;-)
Luxuries, especially western made ones, are definitely not affordable though. But.. caviar is cheaper.. go figure.

One thing I really like about east europe that all but disappeared in the west is.. one man operation stores.. and... repairing things! Imagine that.. fixing electronics, shoes, whatever... which becomes economical with lower wages, I suppose.