The Justice Department has charged a Ukrainian national with laundering $10 million in a scam that involved contacting victims with false offers of employment.
Viktor Chostak, 34, made his initial appearance in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 23 after being extradited from Poland, according to a press release issued by Justice. Chostak and three other individuals are charged in a 25-count indictment that includes charges of money laundering, conspiracy to commit computer fraud, and identity theft.
According to the indictment, Chostak and his conspirators tricked victims into laundering stolen cash by sending spam emails with false offers of employment. When victims responded to the offers, the perpetrators “falsely represented that the individual’s job was to receive payments from businesses into their personal bank accounts, withdraw the money, then wire the funds to the company’s partners overseas.
“In reality, the individuals merely acted as money mules, processing hackers’ stolen proceeds and wiring them out of the country to other conspirators,” Justice added.
Such scams, which involve professional-looking websites designed to mimic those of real companies and the time-consuming facade of a hiring process, are becoming increasingly common as cybercriminals seek to stay ahead of their victims.
That criminal initiative has paid off. The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an alert about email fraud in August, noting that such scams against individuals accounted for $700,000 in the second quarter of the year alone. That figure did not include business fraud of the sort for which Chostak is charged.
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The FBI has issued a number of tips for avoiding email fraud, which include avoiding emails from strangers, being observant of small changes in addresses designed to mimic real ones, and independently confirming the identity of strangers.
