Unknown India Hacker: Cyber-criminals have been seeking out recently unemployed men and asking them to allow them to rent their bank accounts to house funds from online scams. The cyber criminals are asking the young men to open multiple bank accounts at multiple banks. They are then paying the men a “rental fee” each month for use of the accounts. The criminals are utilizing the accounts to move around the funds from one account to another in an attempt to anonymize the funds and make it more difficult to track down the ill-gotten funds. So far, 45 different accounts have been identified as being part of the money shuffling scheme. By utilizing legitimate accounts owned by average citizens, it keeps the accounts appearing legitimate while distancing the criminals from the funds.
Analyst Notes
If the deposits to the accounts are kept at levels below government scrutiny and timed at or around normal paydays, the group could likely continue to utilize this technique to avoid capture by law enforcement for some time to come.
