U.s Busts Vietnam Based Cybercrime Ring. Information Security Awareness May Reduce Crime

By Author: Peter Martin
Total Articles: 211
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Cybercriminals have not only become more organized, but also are expanding their networks worldwide. Wider network helps offenders to evolve sophisticated crime mechanisms and avoid detection by law enforcement authorities. Cybercrime poses threat to information security of millions of people across the world.

Recently, Department of Home Security started action against a Vietnam based cybercrime ring. The members of the ring are alleged to have cheated online traders of over hundreds of millions of dollars. The crime ring has members both in Vietnam and United States. Criminals based in Vietnam steal information such as credit card and debit card numbers, bank account numbers and other personal details by hacking into computer systems. They also purchase personal information from underground criminals. The stolen information is used to purchase products from online traders and shopping sites. The Vietnam based criminals have an elaborate network of mules in United States. Usually, ethical hacking ...
... is used to identify the vulnerabilities, track user activity and mitigating the flaws. In this case, law enforcement authorities arrested two Vietnamese students of Winona State University, based in Winona, Minnesota.

The offenders acted as mules for the cybercrime ring based in Vietnam. The arrested individuals operated over 360 PayPal and 180 ebay accounts by using stolen identities to sell various products. When legitimate customers ordered products from them, the offenders use stolen credit card numbers to order products from the merchants. They directed the merchant to send the products to the legitimate customers. The offenders receive money from the legitimate customers, which are transferred to separate accounts and remitted to Vietnam. However, the merchant doesn't receive any payment as the victims, whose cards have been used for payment report unauthorized or suspicious transaction. Again, the victims are flooded with claims and non-payment letters from bankers and traders. Law enforcement authorities were investigating the activities for a long period before initiating action against them.

Information security professionals have been warning users of more sophisticated attacks from cybercriminals. Users must be adhere to all safe computing practices such as use of strong passwords, different passwords for each account, avoid suspicious links and e-mails from unknown sources.