Indictments have been issued against 36 defendants by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), targeting them for potential roles in the Infraud Organization–an Internet-based operation which has defrauded victims throughout the world of more than $530 million.
Of those charged, 13 have already been taken into custody, following cooperation by federal, state, local, and international law enforcement agencies. No one country could claim sole stake in the crimes, as defendants were pulled from the United States, Australia, the U.K., France, Italy, Kosovo, and Serbia.
Infraud has been in operation since at last 2010, and worked through a series of methods to hit its victims. On a large scale, it went after identities, which it consequently sold and disseminated. It defrauded credit and debit cards, stole personal identifiable info, breached financial and banking information, and spread computer malware to attain its ends.
“Today’s indictment and arrests mark one of the largest cyberfraud enterprise prosecutions ever undertaken by the Department of Justice,” Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan said. “As alleged in the indictment, Infraud operated like a business to facilitate cyberfraud on a global scale. Its members allegedly caused more than $530 million in actual losses to consumers, businesses, and financial institutions alike — and it is alleged that the losses they intended to cause amounted to more than $2.2 billion. The Department of Justice refuses to allow these cybercriminals to use the perceived anonymity of the Internet as a shield for their crimes. We are committed to working closely with our international counterparts to identify, investigate, and bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes, wherever in the world they operate.”
The indictment notes that there were, as of last year, approximately 10,901 registered members of Infraud. These were further separated into roles within an organized hierarchy, each devoted to particular ends.