San Diego Criminal Lawyers Blog
U.S. and European authorities just announced they have dismantled “Avalanche,” a worldwide computer network that criminals have used to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from online banking customers around the world. The network enabled crime networks to send various types of spam and malicious software to banking customers who would open these messages and have their computers become infected with malware. The malware installed would then allow criminals to steal the bank account emails and passwords. With this information the criminals were able to transfer money from the victims’ accounts to various other worldwide accounts. According to Europol, over 1 million emails were sent out. This happened in the U.S. and 180 other countries.
Europol says it spent four years investigating the case with the help of the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and ESET, a global security company based out of San Diego. ECET has been reportedly helping law enforcement for years.
What is Money Laundering?