Five Indicted in Californian City ACH Fraud Case

Five individuals who played money mule roles in an operation involving the theft of $450,000 from a bank account belonging to the City of Carson, CA, have been indicted. A computer trojan was used to infect the laptop of the city treasurer in order to steal the information necessary to carry out this attack. Automated Clearing House (ACH) fraud has become a preferred method for cybercriminals to steal large sums of money from businesses and organizations. Additionally, because of the hit-and-run nature of these complex attacks, they have proven hard to prevent. An ACH fraud operation starts with cybercriminals customizing a computer Trojan, which would give them the ability to hijack online banking credentials from an infected computer. Their goal is to infect key people with access to a company or organization's bank accounts and funds with it. In this case, the malware used is a trojan called Talex and the targeted individual was City of Carson treasurer Karen Avilla. Posted in: Deposit Account Fraud ACH and Wire Fraud