US Officials Finally Going After Online Organized Criminals In Other Countries

from the it's-a-start dept

It's no secret that Eastern Europe has become the center of an awful lot of organized crime online. Various phishing and scam rings tend to work from a variety of different Eastern European countries without much fear of law enforcement or prosecution. Most of the enforcement in the US to date has been on the few unfortunate Americans who got involved in such scams -- but such targets were almost always small-time scammers compared to the big players across the ocean. However, there are some signs that's starting to change. Forbes details the first case of a foreign cybercriminal being extradited to the US, noting that greater cooperation between foreign governments and the US means that we should be seeing more of this. However, the article also notes that this is only one small attempt, and officials haven't really been able to do any damage to some of the bigger organized crime groups online. Still, given how little the US gov't had been able to do to actually go after the real criminals, it is a good sign that at least they're looking for ways to reach across boundaries to find them.
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Filed Under: cybercrime, eastern europe, extradition, organized crime, us


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2009 @ 3:49am

    It is a program that only works with countries that are willing to allow the extradition of the people. The truly big scammers in places like Russia and China are still very safe for the most part, protected by local gangs and on up.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Tim, 10 Jun 2009 @ 4:30am

    So the US sticks their nose in another county and everyone is happy, but yet they complain when the US sticks their nose elsewhere.

    AHH! Twosidedness!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2009 @ 5:22am

    What is the other side of that agreement ?
    Would someone here be extradited for a crime in a foriegn country ?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2009 @ 6:00am

    what about other countries cases

    Why does the US get to extradite these people. If they do what the US claims then the criminals are obviously doing this to other countries also. Why not extradite them to somewhere in the middleeast where punishments more fit the crimes.

    So you have been found guilty. And since you used your mind for this crime... OFF WITH YOUR HEAD.

    Spam stinks.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2009 @ 6:53am

    Extradition? Schmadition! You guys should plan an invasion on the Internets. Get robo-Cheney working on this ASAP.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    minijedimaster (profile), 10 Jun 2009 @ 7:57am

    Re: what about other countries cases

    Probably because the idiots running the countries in the middle east don't have agreements with anyone because they're a bunch of asstards who don't get along with any other country. That, and their primary export is crime.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Jason, 10 Jun 2009 @ 10:17am

    Re: what about other countries cases

    And would you really want them to be able to extradite you for a Sharia violation?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Jason, 10 Jun 2009 @ 10:33am

    And just so you know what we're really up to...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jun 2009 @ 5:52pm

    Re: Re: what about other countries cases

    And would you really want them to be able to extradite you for a Sharia violation?

    Which is why this might not be such a good idea.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2009 @ 7:25am

    Wonderful. Let's have the Americans police us all. :(

    link to this | view in thread ]


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