International ring recruits at Australian schools for Internet fraud
An international crime ring has infiltrated Australian schools and colleges to recruit students as young as 15 for an Internet banking fraud potentially worth millions of dollars, the Australian police said today.
An international crime ring has infiltrated Australian schools and colleges to recruit students as young as 15 for an Internet banking fraud potentially worth millions of dollars, the Australian police said today.
Australian criminals with links to Russian crime had set up a network to lure students into accessing money illegally transferred from other people's accounts.
Fraud squad commander Cole Dyson said they were all of high school or college age.
"Obviously the young people have probably been chosen cause they are naive and may not scrutinise the actual operation in as much detail as an adult may," he said.
"They are substantial amounts, because false names have been used on many occasions the exact amount is unknown."
He added that "millions of dollars could possibly be involved."
Nine adults have been arrested after stealing up to 600,000 Australian dollars (460,000 US) by using a computer virus to obtain internet banking passwords.
Four minors have also been arrested, who police say were used to deposit money into accounts from where it was destined to go offshore, and further arrests are expected.
One of the scam ringleaders, Derek Cheng, 21, has pleaded guilty to fraud offences and is to be sentenced by a Sydney court on Jan 12.
Malaysian link
Although run from Russia, police believe the scam was locally coordinated in Sydney.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Malaysian crime figures were also implicated and at least 61 victims had been identified.
Some "money mules" were said to have collected up to 100,000 Australian dollars (76,400 US) in a day for the syndicate, the newspaper said, getting paid typically between 200 and 500 Australian dollars, which they regarded as easy money.
The syndicate used Trojan virus programs delivered by spam email or through links on advertising pop-ups, to get people's internet banking details, the newspaper said.
Money is transferred out of their accounts and into the money mule's account, who then withdraws it in sums of less than 10,000 dollars from different bank branches.
