A SOPHISTICATED internet banking scam contrived by the Russian mafia has forced Westpac Bank to start reimbursing an unknown number of its customers several million dollars.


In the scam, the subject of an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation, the foreign crime syndicate hacked into 30 computers around the world.

One of these belonged to Brisbane private investigator Paul Duggan, whose website, http://www.paramilitary.com, was used without his knowledge to host a ghost site resembling Westpac's own internet banking page.


Mr Duggan learned of the problem in April when he received a call from a member of the AFP's hi-tech crime unit.


"I got a message on my answering machine from someone from the Australian Federal Police about an anomaly on my Telstra Bigpond account," Mr Duggan said.


"I have an unlimited download, unlimited time account.


"My Telstra Bigpond invoice for February (2004) was 180 megabytes. My invoice for April was 2560mb," he said.


Having infiltrated his computer with a computer virus known as Trojan, the criminals began an Australia-wide spam e-mail campaign, targeting Westpac internet customers.


Those who opened the e-mails were then lured to the bogus Westpac internet banking site by a link in the e-mail where they were asked for their account numbers and passwords, which allowed mobsters to loot their accounts.


The money was moved to other accounts created specifically for the purpose by "mules" � individuals recruited with offers of a 10 per cent cut of the mobsters' illicit haul.


From these halfway accounts, the "mules" withdrew the money and wired it overseas in installments of no more than $5000, using money transfer.


Neither Westpac or the AFP would confirm yesterday whether any of the "mules" had been identified.


Security analyst Robert Lowe from IT security specialists AusCERT said "mules" were often recruited with offers of a percentage of any funds appearing in the accounts they were asked to set up.


After withdrawing the funds the money was simply wired to a pre-arranged location offshore.


Westpac is obliged to reimburse customers under the guidelines on internet banking fraud layed down in the Electronic Funds Transfer Code.


AUSTRALIA faced a major threat from Russian organised crime, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said yesterday.

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