Romania Remains Hub for Cyber-Crime Gangs

Several cyber-crime cases dismantled by Romanian police in cooperation with international law enforcement show that the Eastern European country is still a hub for cyber-related crime.

Italian and Romanian police recently dismantled a cybercrime gang that stole 1 million euros from hundreds of customers of two major European banks, Europol announced on Thursday.

Police arrested 20 suspects, nine in Romania and 11 in Italy, after a two-year investigation.

The organised crime group was essentially comprised of Italian nationals used phishing emails impersonating tax authorities to harvest the online banking credentials of their victims and then transferring the money to Romania.

The money was withdrawn from ATMs in Romania with credit or debit cards linked to the criminal accounts. Europol said they are also suspected of money laundering, drug and human trafficking, prostitution and of participation in a criminal organisation.

A wave of high-profile cyber-crime cases, including an unemployed Romanian taxi driver who called himself "Guccifer'' and hacked the emails of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell and former President George W Bush in 2011, have also put a spotlight on the dark side of Romania's growing IT industry.

After the US Embassy said that in 2011 alone Romanian hackers stole 1 billion dollars from Americans, US law enforcement authorities have in recent years kept in close contact with cybercrime units in Bucharest.

A Romanian national, Nicolae Popescu, is the second most wanted on the FBI's cybercrime list, with a 1-million-dollar reward for his arrest.

He escaped arrest in 2010, before the Romanian police could produce a warrant. Popescu was involved with an estimated 250 Romanians in the "Valley...