Symantec has helped in busting a cybercriminal gang called ‘Bayrob’ in Romania which duped $35m in fraud operation.
The company claimed that its intelligence over the years has led to the successful sting operation and arrest of the three criminals by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Romania.
This group is said to be responsible for stealing up to $35m from several people through automobile auction scams, credit card fraud and computer intrusion. The arrested men include Bogdan Nicolescu, Danet Tiberiu and Radu Miclaus.
Symantec further claims that the suspects are career cybercriminals, who have defrauded many people online to earn money. These suspects, it says, can go to great heights to convince and dupe their victims by creating fake websites, voice messages and even customer support chat rooms.
The gang started running elaborate cons to create fake vehicle auctions and collected tens of thousands of dollars from their victims. 
They later expanded and diversified to several other modes of online fraud and malware operations which include credit card theft and crypto-currency mining through infected computers.
FBI estimates that the gang has stolen about $4m over the past eight years, but Symantec says that the number could be as high as $35m. The gang has infected 60,000 – 160,000 computers and have sent about 11 million malicious emails.
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Symantec president and chief operating officer Mike Fey said, “The Symantec Security Response team responsible for gathering the intelligence that assisted the FBI in this operation has an unparalleled track record when it comes to detecting cyber criminals and their stealthy methods.
“We expect our success record will continue to grow now that we’ve combined Symantec’s global threat intelligence with Blue Coat. By unifying our threat telemetry we’re seeing 500,000 additional detections every day to help us get ahead of attacks and defend our customers.”
Symantec has been collecting information such as infection vectors, malicious programs and exploitation methods and intelligence about the gang’s victims since 2007.
The analysis of this information and counter measures, it claims has helped the FBI and the Romanian authorities in tracking and arresting them.
