(The Center Square) – Nearly 16 years later, American prosecutors believe justice is on the way for a Romanian involved in a vishing scheme.
A 2017 grand jury in Charlotte returned a criminal indictment against Gavril Sandu, charging a count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and a count of bank fraud. The 53-year-old was arrested Jan. 9 in Romania and extradited to America on Friday.
Vishing is scam scheme whereby small businesses’ Voice over Internet Protocol systems are hacked. A script is inserted, requesting to contact financial institution customers in order to net personal debit card and personal identification numbers.
Prosecutors say Sandu and colleagues did this between May 2009 and October 2010. They used the information obtained “to make magnetic stripe cards with the victims’ fraudulently obtained debit card numbers.”
Sandu is also accused of operating “as a money mule, traveling to ATMs to withdraw money and funds from the banks and credit union accounts of the victims of the scheme. Sandu then allegedly provided his co-conspirators with a percentage of the fraudulently obtained victims’ money and kept a portion for himself,” prosecutors say.
Sandu is in federal custody pending trial. The sentencing maximum is 30 years in prison.
Russ Ferguson, a federal attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said in part, “Greed crosses borders, but so does our relentless pursuit of justice. Scams originating outside of our country are out of control. Wherever scammers operate – here or abroad – we will use every tool available to bring them to justice.”
Reid Davis, the special agent leading the FBI in North Carolina, said the digital age offers more opportunity for stolen identities and money.
“That unfortunate reality,” he said, “has allowed cyber criminals to use and exploit stolen information for their own profit. The FBI remains committed to holding international cyber fraudsters accountable and ensuring there is no place they can hide, and justice has no timeline.”
