Mary Pat Flaherty and Martin Weil report: Thousands of dollars in unauthorized withdrawals were made from bank accounts in the Washington area after a skimming device was attached to an ATM in Alexandria, authorities said. The device, which captures bank card information, was spotted Feb. 28 at a Wachovia branch in the 3600 block of…
Category: Financial Sector
ID theft scam: 2 accused of stealing $289K in tax refunds
Serena Daniels reports: Two women pocketed nearly $300,000 in state and federal tax returns after stealing the identities of more than 60 customers of an Indiana H & R Block branch, federal prosecutors say. The alleged scheme was uncovered after Rosetta Buchanan, 35, and Francesca Foster, 32 — an H & R Block worker —…
(follow-up) Moscow gets tough on cybercrime as ID theft escalates
Joseph Menn reports: Russia has quietly arrested several suspects in one of the world’s biggest cyberbank thefts, raising hopes of a previously unseen level of official co-operation in a country that has been a haven for criminals. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)has detained suspects including Viktor Pleshchuk, an alleged mastermind behind a £6m (€6.6m,…
Firm denies hacking, stock manipulation charges
Elinor Mills reports: A Cyprus-based company accused of manipulating stocks on U.S. exchanges via compromised trading accounts denied the allegations on Friday, placing blame on “Russian swindlers.” A U.S. federal judge in New York agreed to freeze the assets of BroCo Investments on Tuesday, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint alleging…
New 5/3 debit cards ‘safety precaution’
WOOD-TV reports: A security breach through a third-party payment company prompted Fifth Third Bank to send new debit cards to its customers as a safety precaution. Bank officials sent a letter to customers and said the debit cards may have been compromised, but other sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, were not accessed. The…
20 Banking Breaches So Far in 2010
Linda McGlasson of bankinfosecurity.com reports: There have been 171 reported data breaches so far in 2010, and 20 of these involve financial services companies. This means that in less than one quarter of the year, we already have seen nearly one-third of the 62 banking-related breaches reported in all of 2009. The rest of the…