Category Archives: Eastern District of New York

Aleksandr Zhukov, self-described ‘king of fraud,’ is sentenced to 10 years

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A Russian man who once described himself as the “king of fraud” for his role in orchestrating a multimillion dollar crime spree was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison. Aleksandr Zhukov, 41, was convicted in May of defrauding U.S. advertising companies out of $7 million in part by using networks of hacked computers, or botnets, to artificially inflate web traffic. Working with a small network of cybercriminals, Zhukov directed bot traffic to inauthentic websites, charging marketing companies to run advertisements on websites that attracted little, if any, real visitors. Two of Zhukov’s associates have pleaded guilty to involvement in the 3ve scheme, also known as Methbot, while six others have faced charges for the alleged roles in the effort. “Sitting at his computer keyboard in Bulgaria and Russia, Zhukov boldly devised and carried out an elaborate multi-million-dollar fraud against the digital advertising industry, and victimized thousands of companies across […]

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Russian scammer ‘Kusok,’ who stole $1.5 million via tax fraud, sentenced to 5 years

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A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Russian man to five years in prison for his role in a scheme to use malicious software to steal the equivalent of $1.5 million in tax returns meant for American taxpayers.  Anton Bogdanov, 35, worked as part of a small crew that used vulnerabilities in accounting software to redirect tax refunds into their own accounts. By logging into the software, Bogdanov and his associates would access customer information and change the recipient information, directing money from the Internal Revenue Service to debit cards under their control, according to an indictment.  Bogdanov, who was better known by the alias “Kusok,” lived in Russia during the crime spree, and would take a cut of the stolen money. He was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2018 while waiting to board a flight to Russia, becoming one of a number of accused cybercriminals whom U.S. […]

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As Methbot trial gets underway, prosecutors say a former scammer will testify against alleged ringleader

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Nearly three years after he was arrested in a Belgium apartment, Aleksander Zhukov was seated in a Brooklyn courtroom this week to face charges of running a complex fraud scheme that netted millions of dollars.  Zhukov, a Russian national, allegedly functioned as the ringleader of a scheme to use traditional cybercrime techniques to carry out a larger advertising fraud conspiracy, known as Methbot, that the U.S. Department of Justice says netted some $7 million between 2014 and 2016. The trial, scheduled to take place in the coming weeks in a Brooklen federal courtroom, is slated to include testimony from a range of FBI agents, cybersecurity executives and, as the prosecution said on Wednesday, a cooperating witness who worked with Zhukov to carry out the work.  The ruse involved Zhukov’s use of a fake advertising company, which he used to charge marketing firms to run ads, prosecutors said during their opening […]

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Lawyer for alleged Methbot boss Aleksandr Zhukov wants case dismissed amid coronavirus concerns

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The attorney for the accused ringleader of a $29 million cybercrime scheme is asking a U.S. federal judge to dismiss the case because the defendant is at risk of contracting COVID-19 behind bars. Aleksandr Zhukov’s lawyer argued in a court filing that U.S. authorities should release his client, who is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in New York City, in part because he is accused of a nonviolent crime. Zhukov is scheduled to stand trial for allegedly directing an international advertising fraud ring in which scammers have admitted using a range of known hacking techniques to commandeer victims’ computers to view internet ads. Two members of the so-called Methbot/3ve conspiracy have pleaded guilty, while Zhukov has maintained his innocence in the effort to defraud victims out of $29 million. He has spent more than a year in the federal jail, where 14 inmates have tested positive for […]

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Microsoft strikes back at Necurs botnet by preemptively disabling hacking tools

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Microsoft is trying to sink a vast network that cybercriminals have used for eight years to spread spam and hack computers throughout the globe. Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it has moved to disrupt the Necurs botnet, a network of more than 9 million computers that had been surreptitiously infected with malware and then used by hackers to carry out various schemes. Attackers, likely in Russia, according to Microsoft, used Necurs to distribute pharmaceutical spam, facilitate ransomware attacks and infect victims with numerous types of malicious software, such as the GameOver Zeus malware that is blamed for $100 million in losses.   “The Necurs is one of the largest networks in the spam email threat ecosystem, with victims in nearly every country in the world,” Tom Burt, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for customer security and trust, said in a statement. “During a 58-day period in our investigation, for example, we observed that […]

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Huawei accuses U.S. of hacking networks, menacing employees

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Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei has accused U.S. authorities of using cyberattacks to interrupt its business and deploying police to harass employees, allegations that coincide with a growing investigation into the company’s international conduct. Huawei leveled the charges in a press release Tuesday, offering little evidence to substantiate its claims but denying it stole trade secrets from Rui Oliveira, a Portuguese inventor who accused Huawei of stealing his smartphone camera technology. U.S. prosecutors are probing Huawei for multiple instances of alleged intellectual property theft, according to the Wall Street Journal, while the firm also has become a focal point in the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China. “For the past several months, the U.S. government has been leveraging its political and diplomatic influence to lobby other government to ban Huawei equipment,” the company said Tuesday. “Furthermore, it has been using every tool at its disposal — including both judicial and […]

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The company behind ‘Time A.I.’ is suing the company behind Black Hat

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Makers of a security product that was roundly mocked earlier this month at the Black Hat USA conference are out for revenge against the researchers who scrutinized their technology. Well, if not exactly those researchers, then…someone. Crown Sterling, which describes itself as an “emerging digital cryptography” vendor, filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing UBM, which organizes the Black Hat conference, for alleged breach of contract in connection with a controversy over a sponsored talk delivered during the recent conference. On Aug. 8, Crown Sterling CEO Robert Grant described “Time A.I.,” a technology he claimed would upend the world of encryption with its use of “quasi prime numbers” and “infinite wave conjugations.” Dan Guido, CEO of the consultancy Trail Of Bits, stood up toward the end of the presentation to say Grant “should be ashamed” of himself for hawking technology that others have described as bunk, and predicted Black Hat would remove […]

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