Google plans today to begin warning Internet users if their computers show telltale signs of being infected with the DNSChanger Trojan. The company estimates that more than 500,000 systems remain infected with the malware, despite a looming deadline that threatens to quarantine the sick computers from the rest of the Internet.

Security experts won court approval last year to seize control of the infrastucture that powered the search-hijacking Trojan in a bid to help users clean up infections. But a court-imposed deadline to power down that infrastructure will sever Internet access for PCs that are not rid of the malware before July 9, 2012.

Eighteen people were indicted for their roles in a series of criminal schemes, including money laundering, identity theft, alien harboring, and arson, centered around seven IHOP restaurants in northwest Ohio and Indiana that resulted in losses of more than $3 million, law enforcement officials announced today.

“These defendants turned pancakes houses into crime dens,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “This indictment lays out a menu of crimes ranging from harboring undocumented workers to identity theft to money laundering to insurance fraud.”

A Lebanon woman has admitted in federal court that she stole about $848,000 from Entek, where she was employed as the president’s secretary.

Rhonda M. Milligan, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud May 17 before Chief U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

A thief known for credit card skimming New Jersey restaurant patrons’ cards has pleaded guilty to his role in a credit card fraud ring. With skimming threatening identity theft, credit issues and more, it’s a good idea for cardholders in the state and nationwide to learn more about how to protect themselves from this crime.

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that Richard Pinto, 68, of Wellington, Florida, and Peter Pinto, 37, of East Quogue, New York, each pleaded guilty late Friday, May 11 before United States District Judge Stefan Underhill in Bridgeport to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering and one count of wire fraud stemming from a $10 million fraud scheme they executed while executives at Oxford Collection Agency.

“These defendants carried out a significant fraud scheme through which they stole millions of dollars from their company’s clients, lenders, and investors...

Two men from Canada were caught putting data skimming devices on several First Merit ATMs in the area last week, raising concerns about the high-tech method of credit card fraud.

Detective Lt. John Janowski said no one in Strongsville has reported being a victim of card skimming.

But he said the crime "is around" and it's devious.

A U.S. District Court in Los Angeles has sentenced Nichole Michelle Merzi, a key figure in an international cybercrime ring that between 2008 and 2009 drained thousands of dollars from U.S. bank accounts.

Merzi, who helped to orchestrate an elaborate phishing scheme that involved 53 co-conspirators in the U.S. and 47 in Egypt, on May 15 was sentenced to more than five years in prison. She was convicted last year on charges of bank and wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, computer fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

A principal figure in the domestic arm of an international “phishing” operation that used spam e-mails and bogus websites to collect personal information used to defraud American banks was sentencing this morning to five years in federal prison.

Nichole Michelle Merzi, 26, of Oceanside, was sentenced in the fraud case by Senior United States District Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr.

After a six-week trial last year, Merzi was found guilty of bank and wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, computer fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) agreed to pay $202.3 million to settle civil claims that its MortgageIT unit lied to qualify thousands of risky mortgages for a federal insurance program in what the U.S. called a “massive fraud.”

The U.S. claimed in a lawsuit filed May 3, 2011, that Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank and MortgageIT falsely certified that they properly assessed the default risk of borrowers, qualifying loans for insurance by the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Federal Housing Administration.

The bank admitted to some of the conduct alleged in the complaint...

It was a theft allegedly carried out on a massive scale, with military precision, and it repeatedly victimized the holders of debit and credit cards.

Two-dozen “runners” would allegedly be on standby at different ATM machines in the wee hours of the morning, awaiting a call from a ringleader. Upon getting the green light, they would start withdrawing money simultaneously from different machines, using cloned bank cards.