Four Sydney high school students charged with global Internet scam
Four high school students in Sydney, Australia have been charged over a Russian-based global Internet scam that stole people's online banking passwords and siphoned their cash into accounts in eastern Europe, police said.
New South Wales state police on Thursday said the four students, ages 15-17, cannot be named for legal reasons.
The four students were promised of a cut of the profits for letting their bank accounts be used for laundering the money, stolen from Internet bankers via a computer virus that secretly recorded passwords, police said.
They said 13 Australians, including the students, have so far been charged over allegedly robbing 61 people of at least 600,000 Australian dollars (US$457,000; euro347,000).
The total could ultimately reach millions, the police said.
More arrests are expected in the next few weeks.
Some students allegedly set up bank accounts under false names.
"Because false names have been used on many occasions, the exact amount is unknown to us ... millions of dollars could possibly be involved," said Fraud Squad commander Detective Superintendent Col Dyson.
