ATM Flashmob Robs $9 Million

The largest flashmob heist ever recorded took place on November 8th, when dozens of so-called cashers from all around the globe took to their local ATMs and withdrew over $9 million from payroll cards owned by a company called RBS WorldPay, whose computer system was cracked by a very skilled hacker. The crime was orchestrated at a scale never before encountered in robberies, and even agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations are amazed at this new modus operandi.
 

"We've seen similar attempts to defraud a bank through ATM machines but not, not anywhere near the scale we have here," Ross Rice, an FBI agent, told Fox 5. "We've never seen one this well coordinated. Over 130 different ATM machines in 49 cities worldwide were accessed in a 30-minute period on November 8. So you can get an idea of the number of people involved in this and the scope of the operation." The Bureau also announced that many people throughout the world could be in danger of having their personal data circulating on underground message boards, which are used by hackers to set up such operations.

"The number of machines that were accessed, the number of cities that were targeted, and the number of people that had to be involved in this is quite significant," the agent said. Representatives from RBS WorldPay already announced that employees would not be made responsible for any operations that might be registered on their payroll cards, as they are all cloned, and used by the flashmob participants to buy various kinds of stuff they want. However, the company fears that the mastermind behind the attack might have had access to a database containing sensitive information from over 1.5 million customers worldwide, which means that the thieves could now engage in identity theft with all these identities.
 

The company also said that other sensitive materials included social security numbers and other such personal details about their customers, and urged the FBI to take immediate action to resolve this. This may very well be outside the Bureau's jurisdiction, as ATMs in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Montreal, Moscow and Hong Kong, as well as in Japan were hit at the same time, within a half-an-hour interval.

Flashmobs are usually peaceful manifestations, and consist of a large group of people meeting online or face-to-face and discussing the details of the actions they will do. Then, at an established time and place, seemingly normal people start bashing each other over the head with pillows, or standing still for a pre-determined period of time. After that, they resume their usual routine, or all flee the scene.
 

Knowing how flashmobs are organized, policemen hope to be able to identify low-level players, aka the cashers, and to arrest them, as they are very likely to give the police information about the people who hired them. We will keep you posted on this subject as information becomes available.