A group of worldwide criminals managed to steal over $45 million from ATMs around the world in a matter of hours, reports The New York Times. The individuals ran around multiple cities draining ATMs and filling backpacks with piles of cash. The hackers broke into online databases where they stole financial information from a number of prepaid bank accounts from the Middle East.
The criminals used makeshift magnetic swipe cards that contained the bank information, which enabled them to carry out one of the largest heists in history. They used old plastic cards, such as hotel keys, expired credit cards or key cards to store the account information. The heist consisted of two separate attacks and was carried out over nearly 36,000 transactions.
The bank information was stolen from accounts belonging to Rakbank in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman. The attackers stole from ATMs located in Japan, Russia, Romania, Egypt, Colombia, the UK, Sri Lanka, Canada, and many other countries.
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