Cyber Crooks Cooked the Books at Fla. Library
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:17 pm
I thought this might be of interest (Moderators, please feel free to delete/move as appropriate):
Cyber Crooks Cooked the Books at Fla. Library
http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/2010/01/ ... /#more-673
Jan. 7, 2010 was a typical sunny Thursday morning at the Delray Beach Public Library in coastal Florida, aside from one, ominous dark cloud on the horizon: It was the first time in as long as anyone could remember that the books simply weren’t checking out.
Sure, patrons were still able to borrow tomes in the usual way — by presenting their library cards. The trouble was, none of the staff could figure out how or why nearly $160,000 had disappeared from their bank ledgers virtually overnight. The money was sent in sub-$10,000 chunks to some 16 new employees that had been added to the usual outgoing direct deposit payroll.
One of those phantom employees was 19-year-old Brittany Carmine, 900 miles to the north in Richmond, Va. Carmine had just lost her job at a local marketing firm when she received a work-at-home job offer from a company calling itself the Prestige Group. She said after researching the company online, she decided it was legitimate, and filled out the paperwork to begin her employment. Just days later, she received a bank deposit of $9,649, with instructions to wire all but roughly $770 of that to individuals in Ukraine.
Carmine said she successfully wired all of the money to three different individuals overseas, via Western Union and Moneygram. I’ve always wondered why the thieves have their recruits break the money up into sub-$3,000 payments, and Carmine’s description of her experience seems to offer one possible, obvious answer: Breaking that threshold sometimes raises red flags at the money transfer offices.
Source: Krebs on Security
Cyber Crooks Cooked the Books at Fla. Library
http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/2010/01/ ... /#more-673
Jan. 7, 2010 was a typical sunny Thursday morning at the Delray Beach Public Library in coastal Florida, aside from one, ominous dark cloud on the horizon: It was the first time in as long as anyone could remember that the books simply weren’t checking out.
Sure, patrons were still able to borrow tomes in the usual way — by presenting their library cards. The trouble was, none of the staff could figure out how or why nearly $160,000 had disappeared from their bank ledgers virtually overnight. The money was sent in sub-$10,000 chunks to some 16 new employees that had been added to the usual outgoing direct deposit payroll.
One of those phantom employees was 19-year-old Brittany Carmine, 900 miles to the north in Richmond, Va. Carmine had just lost her job at a local marketing firm when she received a work-at-home job offer from a company calling itself the Prestige Group. She said after researching the company online, she decided it was legitimate, and filled out the paperwork to begin her employment. Just days later, she received a bank deposit of $9,649, with instructions to wire all but roughly $770 of that to individuals in Ukraine.
Carmine said she successfully wired all of the money to three different individuals overseas, via Western Union and Moneygram. I’ve always wondered why the thieves have their recruits break the money up into sub-$3,000 payments, and Carmine’s description of her experience seems to offer one possible, obvious answer: Breaking that threshold sometimes raises red flags at the money transfer offices.
Source: Krebs on Security