Hackers fund flights to London for Romanian pickpockets through iThing scam

The proceeds from a phishing scheme aimed at Apple users were used to buy air tickets. The fraud netted $25,630.

“Constanta Agrigoroaie, 23, and Radu Savoae, 28, both originally believed to be from Romania, were accused of cooking up a scam targeting around 150 Apple users with emails claiming that they needed to update their accounts and credit card details after a suspected compromise,” Techworld reports.

A link in the phishing messages lured the victims to a bogus website, where they updated their information -- including bank details. Once the information was provided, an email was sent directly to the duo, which they used to take large quantities of money, according to the Ilford Recorder.

“The scam was uncovered and on February 26 detectives joined officers from Bedfordshire Police at Luton Airport for an operation. An inbound flight from Romania was intercepted and six passengers who claimed they did not know each other were found to have had their tickets purchased from the same computer. The purchase was traced to Agrigoroaie and Savoae’s address and they were later arrested,” the Recorder reports.

Police arrived at Agrigoroaie’s address while she was visiting East European airline websites.

Police also recovered equipment used to clone credit cards, including large numbers of blank credit cards and a magnetic card reader, plus fake Spanish and Romanian ID cards and a ton of money.

“Helpfully, one of the defendants had detailed the frauds carried out in a spreadsheet,” Techworld reports.