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11/20/03
 First,
we brought you Operation E-Con in May '03, a worldwide roundup
of cyber criminals in over 90 different coordinated cases;
involving some 90,000 victims and a total of over $176 million
in financial losses.
Now,
Operation Cyber Sweep. Again, the numbers are staggering:
- More
than 125 investigations;
- Some
125,000 victims worldwide;
- More
than $150 million in losses; and
- More
than 125 arrests or convictions . so far.
The
Announcement. On Thursday, Jana Monroe, Assistant Director
of the FBI's Cyber Division, joined Attorney General Ashcroft,
FTC Commissioner Tim Muris, U.S. Postal Service Chief Inspector
Lee Heath, and Deputy Inspector General Patrick Acheampong
of the Ghana Police Department in announcing this major cyber
crackdown. AD Monroe called the initiative a "great stride"
in the battle against online economic crimes, made possible
by growing partnerships with the cyber community and with
national and international law enforcement agencies.
A
sampling of the cases and crimes:
- Re-shipping
scams: organized crime groups used phony credit cards
to buy online goods; recruited often unwitting citizens
to receive the goods; and then had these individuals re-ship
the products to places (often overseas) where criminals
picked them up. Total U.S. e-commerce losses from these
scams are estimated at half-a-billion dollars.
- Investment
fraud: an online investment company promised investors
huge returns from overseas day trading, but simply took
their money and ran. Some 26,000 victims worldwide lost
a total of $50 million in the scam.
- Cyber
extortion: A computer security consulting company hacked
into the online systems of 70 different businesses and such
federal agencies as Army, NASA, and the Department of Energy.
The criminals then demanded money to protect these systems
from harm.
- Cheating
heart software: More than 1,000 people bought an illegal
$89 software service designed to "catch a cheating lover."
The service enabled these individuals to send up to five
electronic greeting cards that secretly installed a program
on their significant other's computer to log their every
keystroke.
Our
partners.
- More
than 100 federal, state, and local agencies, departments,
and task forces, ranging from the Alabama State Attorney
General's Office to the Internal Revenue Service to the
West Virginia Cyber Crimes Task Force;
- A
host of private sector companies and cyber industry watchdogs;
and
- Agencies
in several foreign nations, including Ghana, Nigeria, Canada,
Romania, and Greece.
Calling
All Citizens.
As always,
we encourage anyone with information on individuals committing
crimes in cyberspace to call your local FBI office or to report
the information online at the Internet
Fraud Complaint Center, a partnership between the National
White Collar Crime Center and the FBI. In the first nine months
this year, the IFCC has already referred more Internet-related
fraud complaints (58,392) to the appropriate law enforcement
agency than it did during all of 2002.
Links:
The
Press Release | Assistant
Director Monroe's Remarks | Cyber
Sweep Operation
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