Italian Police Arrest 26 Members Of International Phishing Gang

Italian police have arrested 26 members of an alleged international gang of phishers, in an operation dubbed "Phish & Chip."

The Guardia di Finanza arrested 18 Italian citizens and eight foreign nationals from Eastern Europe, according to a police statement. The phishers had been targeting Poste Italiane's customers who engage in online banking. Poste Italiane is a government-owned postal service that offers financial services.

"The Italian authorities should be applauded for cracking down on illegal activity like this," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, in a statement. "Internet criminals can use technology to hide their identities, and it can often be a complex web for the police to untangle. Phishing and identity theft are global problems, and countries need to work more closely with each other to bring cybercriminals to justice. These arrests underline the growing organized nature of international identity theft gangs, but there are many other phishers still at large."

A 22-year-old man was the main hacker in the group, and confessed to sending e-mails that pretended to come from Poste Italiane, according to a police statement. The e-mails directed users to foreign-based Web servers that had copied the appearance of the real banking Web site. When unsuspecting users visited the site, their login information was stolen and used to help hackers empty users' bank accounts. The money was transferred to Postepay cards that members of the gang allegedly activated.

Police reported that the alleged ring leader told them he was a data processing consultant who helped Italian companies prevent credit card fraud.