14 DAY TRIAL // Two British teenagers have been arrested for stealing the details of more than 65,000 bank accounts from computers infected with malware and selling them on an underground carding forum. According to UK authorities more than £8 million ($12 million) have been stolen from the compromised accounts.
Nick Webber, 18, of Southsea, Hants, and Ryan Thomas, 17, of Seer Green, Bucks, have met on a social networking website around two years ago. After they became good friends, the two computer enthusiasts came up with a plan to steal banking details by infecting others with information stealing trojans.
The authorities tracked them down after reading the ads they posted on a carding forum that was being monitored as part of an ongoing investigation. The Sun reports that US bank account details were being sold for $3 a piece, European Union ones for $5, while UK accounts were the most expensive and cost $7.
In addition to selling stolen bank account details, the two hackers were advising their customers on how to abuse them to buy good, wire money or pay for other services. From the money made, the teenagers were also living it high. In a photos posted on his Facebook page, Webber is seen showing off his designer clothes and expensive accessories.
Maintaining information stealing botnets is a very lucrative business for cybercrooks. According to previous research into the underground economy from Kaspersky Lab, the details for a stolen bank account can rack anything between $1 and $1,500, depending on its balance and freshness. Complete personal information, that can be used for identity theft costs between $5 and $8 for an American and two or three times more for Europeans.
The fact that the two UK fraudsters were very young when they started their illegal activities is not as shocking if we consider the wide availability of crimeware toolkits like ZeuS. This type of applications allow generating customized banking trojans at the push of a button, making it much more easier for inexperienced individuals to engage in cybercrime.
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