Cyberthieves rely on human foot soldiers

Sitting at a computer somewhere overseas in January 2009, computer hackers went phishing.

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killadoob said:

I wonder how they managed to move the money though, i cannot open a beneficiary without a one time password so if someone managed to get my details they could only move money into the accounts i have already created.

I wonder how thieves can open accounts and transfer half a million so easily, it couldn't happen here using standard bank and i am sure other banks use the one time password as well. Well it could happen here but they would need to clone the cellphone as well .

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According to court records, the company's bank, Dallas-based Comerica Inc., has recovered all but the company's original balance of $560,000. Tomlinson said the bank should be liable for the company's losses because the wire transfers were obviously dubious - the company hadn't made any transfers in more than two years and never to Eastern Europe.

"Canada was maybe as exotic as we got and it was maybe three or four years before this," Tomlinson said.

Comerica says it wasn't part of the problem.

"This was caused solely by the actions of that (Experi-Metal Inc.) employee," a lawyer for the bank wrote in a court filing. "The criminal that accessed Experi-Metal's accounts was able to do so only because Experi-Metal gave him its key."

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