Two individuals were arrested and charged in July for their part in a ploy to bilk online buyers with phony auctions announced the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday - the latest results of an ongoing joint operation between local and Romanian authorities that has already nabbed more than 100 suspects.
Adrian Culda and Tiberiu Zachiteanu of Romania were both charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Last month, Romanian national Adrian Ghighina was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the organized criminal enterprise. U.S. authorities stated that Ghighina defrauded trusting customers for years following his legal entry into the country in 2004.
The two-pronged assault on the ring of cyber criminals active in both countries also saw 117 search warrants executed last Thursday in Romania against those believed to be involved in the illicit activity.
Court documents from prior cases involving apprehended suspects described the scheme in all its duplicity:
...conspirators located in Romania would post items for sale such as cars, motorcycles and boats on Internet auction and online websites. They would instruct victims located in the United States and elsewhere who wanted to buy those items to wire transfer the purchase money to a fictitious name they claimed to be an employee of an escrow company. Once the victim wired the funds, the co-conspirators in Romania would text information about the wire transfer to co-conspirators in the United States known as "arrows" to enable them to retrieve the wired funds. They would also provide the arrows with instructions as to where to send the funds after retrieval. The arrows in the United States would go to money transmitter service counters such as Western Union or MoneyGram International, provide false documents including passports and drivers' licenses in the name of the recipient of the wire transfer, and obtain the funds. They would subsequently wire the funds overseas, typically to individuals in Romania, minus a percentage kept for their commissions. In some cases, co-conspirators in Romania also directed arrows to provide bank accounts in the United States where larger amounts of funds could be wired by victims of the fraud.
In the U.S., several other members of the group were convicted of crimes including conspiracy to commit wire fraud earlier this year. Many pleaded guilty, while others remain in the wind. Arrests have been made in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and Missouri - illustrating the sheer scope of the operation. Indeed, the DoJ believes over $10 million has been stolen from unwitting victims, admitting that the amount could grow as more are identified. (via The U.S. Department of Justice)
