According to Sophos, four teenagers have been arrested in Australia over charges of helping an organised criminal gang steal millions of pounds from online bank accounts. The teenagers, aged from 15 to 17, were all high school students in Sydney. Nine other suspects have been arrested, including two who are thought to be the gang ringleaders.
The criminals are thought to have used fake adverts and spam e-mails to install backdoor Trojans onto users computers, from where they could capture bank details and security information. The Australian teenagers were used to help transfer the money to Eastern European bank accounts.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, had the following to say about the arrests:
Criminal gangs are getting more and more sophisticated with their tricks to make millions of pounds out of innocent people; tempting naive teenagers with the opportunity of making a quick buck is another one of their schemes. It's reassuring to all online bank customers that these criminals are being uncovered and charged, however, users should still be on their guard when banking online.
As always we'd warn our readers to be suspicious of any e-mail or web site that asks for your security information. As well as this, regularly updating your anti-virus and operating system with the latest updates is highly advisable.
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