Romanian police raid alleged hackers

Romanian police carried out an overnight raid and arrested a group of alleged Romanian hackers involved in multi-million dollar international fraud operations, according to officials.

According to a press release issued by the Romanian police, several properties across Romania were raided before a Tuesday night operation in which 16 alleged hackers were arrested.

The operation was carried out with collaborative work from the FBI, Australian police and the Romanian Intelligence Service.

According to Australian local media, authorities were investigating the arrested Romanians on suspicion that they hacked into the computers of Australian companies and fabricated false credit cards causing 30 million Australian dollars (RM95.66 million) of damage.

Romanian anti-crime prosecutors said from December 2011 until October, suspects hacked into the information systems of Australian-owned supermarkets and gas companies and transferred data to 500-thousand fake credit cards.

The group had accomplices in Australia and Britain.

Suspects who reportedly worked for IT companies, also created an online shop where they sold fake credit cards for US$ 270,000 (RM823,000), according to a police press statement.