Three Romanian nationals have been indicted on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy, identity theft and money laundering associated with a cyber fraud operation that infected more than 60,000 computers and resulted in the transmission of 11 million malicious emails.
The 21-count indictment was revealed Friday following the extradition of Bogdan Nicolescu, Radu Miclaus and Tiberiu Danet to the U.S., the Justice Department said Friday.
Nicolescu, Miclaus and Danet allegedly started their cyber operation in Romania in 2007 through the use of a malware to infect computers and collect credit card data, passwords and other personally identifiable information from victims.
The Romanian nationals also posted over 1,000 malware-infected listings of motorcycles and automobiles on auction websites that led to the theft of more than $4 million from victims.
The FBI conducted the investigation in collaboration with the Romanian national police and the office of international affairs under DOJ’s criminal division.
Symantec also launched a research campaign to gather intelligence on the Romanian nationals that are part of the cyber crime group known as “Bayrob.â€
