The Moscow offices of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, known as Service ‘K’, and the Economic Crimes police department report that they have smashed a gang of criminal hackers responsible for stealing more than 500 million rubles (US$16.25 million) in the last year. Goods in possession of the suspects were seized in the operation when around 20 addresses were raided in this joint operation.

This huge scam was perpetrated by the Russian hackers through a series of actions. Firstly, unsuspecting victims' computers were infected with malware and then, secondly, money was exhorted by the criminals by charging to ‘unlock’ the computer for the user. Using a premium rate SMS service they cheated users of anything from between 300 rubles (US$9.75) to 1000 rubles (US$32.5) a time, by offering the unsuspecting user a code to enable them to regain access to their computer. The syndicate stored their illicit funds in bank accounts using gang member agents to withdraw the funds in cash.

The police received more than three thousand complaints about the illegal practices of the gang with the number of victims estimated to be in the tens of thousands across Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic countries.

At least ten people, the organizers and malware programmers at the central hub of the gang, were arrested along with those responsible for collecting the funds from the banks. They are expected to be charged according to Russian law under articles 159 ("Fraud") and 273 ("Creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs") of the Criminal Code.

The Economic Crime Division responsible for this operation was created in the spring of 2010 to combat the problem of Internet crimes.

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