14 DAY TRIAL // Back in December 2011, we learned that four Romanian citizens were indicted by US authorities on suspicion of being involved in hacking into the computers of a number of organizations, incuding Subway restaurants.
So, Romanian fraudsters are not something out of the ordinary, you may think, but the way US authorities managed to attract them to visit the country is something that could be easily turned into a book, or a movie.
According to security journalist Brian Krebs, two alleged accomplices were lured from Romania to the United States by Secret Service agents posing as women who promised the hackers “love and riches.”
Krebs found out from Michael Shklar, the public defender appointed to Iulian Dolan, one of the suspects, that his client went to the US after he was invited by the female employee of a casino.
The man was initially reluctant, but since the casino demonstrated that it truly wanted to reward him for his online gambling activities by purchasing him the airplane ticket, Dolan gave in.
As soon as he arrived at the Logan International Airport, he was taken into custody.
Cezar Iulian Butu is the other suspect that was lured in a similar way. However, in his case investigators utilized more sophisticated techniques.
By obtaining warrants to access his email and other online communication accounts, they managed to learn a lot of details about Butu’s personal life. They posed as a female tourist that he had apparently met in France one year before.
“She” posed as a rich Hooters waitress, which was apparently more than enough to make the suspect pack his bags and go to America.
We can only imagine how surprised the fraudsters were when instead of women with furry handcuffs, they were met by big and bad law enforcement agents.