16 February 2009

Online scammers get $2.5 million - from the state of Utah

"According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the chain of events leading to the theft were set in motion when one of the would-be thieves (or an associate) acquired a vendor number for the University of Utah's design and construction department. That information allowed the miscreants to forge documents changing the bank account information for the account in question. Once the account was under new management, the criminals invoiced the state of Utah for various imaginary repairs and/or expenses with instructions to deposit the cash into the hacked account (a Bank of America account in Texas)...

There is no simple trail back to the perpetrators themselves; the thieves obscured their own records by providing false identifications and addresses. The Texas account at Bank of America was reportedly opened by a man with a Minnesota license, and other individuals mentioned in the warrant are also from that state. The involvement and guilt, if any, of these individuals has yet to be determined, and it may be the individuals in question were hooked through what would have appeared to be a standard "419 scheme" on their end..."

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