MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Eight computer hackers from Estonia, Moldova and Russia have been charged in the U.S. over a mass case of credit card fraud, in which they allegedly stole over $9 million, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The group is accused of taking the cash from ATMs in 280 cities around the world during a period of less than 12 hours on November 8, 2008. The ringleader is being held in an Estonian prison and awaiting extradition to the U.S.
The group reportedly obtained the codes of debit cards used by companies to pay their employees. They then reverse-engineered the PINs of the accounts via encrypted data on the network of the Atlanta-based card processor RBS WorldPay, and produced dozens of fake duplicate cards, which were sent to accomplices in various countries who withdrew the cash.
Acting U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia said in a statement: "Last November, in just one day, an American credit card processor was hacked in perhaps the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever conducted. Today, almost exactly one year later, the leaders of this attack have been charged. This investigation has broken the back of one of the most sophisticated computer hacking rings in the world."
Sergei Tsurikov, 25, from Estonia, Viktor Pleshchuk, 28, from Russia, and Oleg Covelin, 28, from Moldova, along with an unnamed hacker have been indicted in Atlanta on various charges including wire fraud and identity theft.
Four other Estonians - Igor Grudijev, 31, Ronald Tsoi, 31, Evelin Tsoi, 20, and Mihhail Jevgenov, 33 - have been indicted on charges of access device fraud.
