Thirty-eight public were charged Monday with stealing names, Social defense identification numbers, credit card input and other personal info from unsuspecting Web users as part of a global crime ring.

The Romanian-based scams sought to rip off thousands of American consumers and hundreds of financial institutions, according to indictments unsealed in Los Angeles, California, and New Haven, Connecticut.

More than half the citizens charged are Romanian, although the alleged scam additionally operated from the United States, Canada, Portugal and Pakistan. The cases were linked by two Romanians who participated in both schemes, authorities said.

The two cases marked the latest example of what the Justice station describes as a growing worldwide threat posed by organized crime.

“International organized crime poses a serious threat not only to the United States and Romania but to all nations,” Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip said in a statement from Bucharest, where he announced the charges. “Criminals who exploit the capability and

convenience of the Net do not recognize national borders; therefore our efforts to prevent their attacks cannot end at our borders either.”

The practice, known as phishing, typically involves sending deceitful e-mails that include urls directing recipients to fake Web sites where they are asked to supply sensitive notes. Phishers plus may include attachments that, when clicked, secretly install “spyware” that can capture personal knowledge and send it to third parties by the Net.

In Los Angeles, 33 public faced 65 counts on a bevy of charges, including racketeering, bank swindle and identity theft. Prosecutors say scam artists based in Romania snagged info about thousands of credit and debit card accounts and other personal input from folks who answered spam e-mail. The details soon after were sent to the United States and encoded on magnetic cards that could be used to withdraw money from bank accounts.

One encoder in the…

Orginal post by Top Tech News