14 DAY TRIAL // Federal agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are currently investigating two foreign-exchange students from Winona State University (WSU) who are suspected of being members of a Vietnamese identity theft ring.
The investigation is part of a larger probe into money muling activities and Vietnamese cybercriminal gangs dubbed "Operation eMule" (no relation to the popular file sharing application).
The Star Tribune reports that this operation began in September 2009 and led federal investigators to Tram Vo and Khoi Van, two WSU students who are in the country on F1 visas.
According to an affidavit filed by Homeland Security agent Daniel Schwarz in support of a search warrant, the two students are directly responsible for $1.25 million in fraudulent charges.
They are accused of controlling over 180 eBay and 360 PayPal accounts created with stolen identities and used to sell various goods at significant discounts compared to their retail price.
The students did not stock the merchandise themselves. Instead, they took orders for advertised items and then bought them at full prices from various suppliers using stolen financial details.
A large number of companies, including eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Apple, Dell and Verizon Wireless, were affected by the scheme, because of the chargebacks requested by identity theft victims.
Schwarz claims in the affidavit that the two suspects are responsible for nearly $1-million-worth of fraudulent credit card orders for language learning software from a company called Rosetta Stone.
The majority of the profits were wired out of the country to members of a larger fraud ring based in Vietnam, which is composed of a network of specialized criminals.
Some of them are hackers, some are stolen identity traders, others are money mules and shippers, and so on. They all collaborate through a secure website that has a vetting process.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's National Cyber Crimes Center (C3), which leads this investigation, such groups are responsible for losses of hundreds of millions of dollars each year.