Two foreign exchange students from Vietnam
are accused of being mules for an international identity theft ring believed to
have stolen millions of dollars from online merchants, according to an
affidavit filed by federal investigators in Minnesota
district court.
The Dec. 29 affidavit sought a search warrant to raid the home of two
Vietnamese exchange students attending Minnesota’s
Winona State
University. During the resulting
raid, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and
Customs Enforcement unit seized documents and computer equipment, according to
the Minnesota
Star Tribune.
The Department
of Homeland Security affidavit, signed by Daniel Schwarz, claimed the students,
Tram Vo and Khoi Van, were money transfer mules and made more than $1.2 million
using eBay to sell products purchased with stolen credit card numbers. The
affidavit laid out the case for wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering
against the students, who have not yet been formally charged, according to
public records. The third person living at the house, Vinh Dong, was not named
as part of the cyber-crime ring.
DHS’ Cyber Crimes Center was already investigating the “underground
economy” involving criminal rings based in Vietnam that were committing
Internet financial fraud, said Schwarz. The amount of money stolen in this
criminal enterprise is “estimated to exceed hundreds of millions of
dollars,” Schwarz said in the filing.
For more, read the eWeek article: PayPal, eBay Targeted in Web Theft Scam That Stole Millions.
