TechnoMagicians Blog

You would think that it wouldn't be that hard to track down
phishing scammers. While they do try to hide themselves, in the end,
there should be some sort of money trail leading back to them. However,
for all the talk of trying to track these guys down, it seemed like no
one ever got anywhere. There was a ton of hype around Microsoft
catching a phishing “kingpin” until you realized that it was just some
kid who set up a website and never made any money.
The real problem, everyone always said, was that the real phishing
kingpins operated as part of organized crime in Eastern Europe — and
that made them tough to track down. Partly due to the nature of any
organized crime setup, it probably wasn't that hard to nab the small
fry who were the front men — but that was useless if you wanted to
catch the big phish who actually masterminded the operation. However,
that doesn't mean the authorities weren't working on it. The FBI has
announced that they've brought down one phishing group, arresting at least 16 people. Up to five of those arrested are American
with the rest being Polish. The FBI is still trying to track down
others involved, including some in Romania. While it's definitely great
to see them finally bring down a big phishing group, it should suggest
how big a problem this really is that it's taken this long to nab one
single group. Just imagine how many more are still out there, phishing
away.