Prosecutors have started searching 29 homes of alleged fraudsters in several Romanian counties, suspected of having defrauded the bank accounts of Poste Italiane clients. According to prosecutors, 26 people will be taken into Police custody for a hearing. German prosecutors also made a search into the fraud ring leader's home in Tubingen, Germany.

Between 2010 and 2012, the members of the group were active in Germany, Italy, the UK and Romania, defrauding the bank accounts mainly of Poste Italiane clients. They received information about user names and passwords, card numbers and expiration dates via phishing, sending users to fake, cloned web pages that appeared to belong to the bank, which asked users to provide all their data. They were then accessing the clients' online banking accounts and transferring money, or withdrawing cash from ATMs.

The damage was estimated to some EUR 1 million. Romanian prosecutors worked with Secret Service officers from the US Embassy in Bucharest to crack the case.

editor@romania-insider.com