How A Customer-Service Sting Brought Down a Half-Billion Dollar Banking Scam

The Citadel trojan, adept at “draining bank accounts,” infected more than 11 million computers worldwide and cost victims a half billion dollars, according to U.S. prosecutors. The software was sold to cyber-criminals over a period of years and came with on-line interactive tech support that was a model of customer friendliness and utility, even allowing users to suggest improvements. It was some of those improvements, suggested by FBI operatives posing as customers, that allowed authorities to trace the URL and eventually the physical location of one of the men who had developed and sold the scam. Living in Norway when he was busted, Mark Vartanya is  Russian citizen who grew up in Ukraine. He was extradited to the United States and on July 19 was sentenced to five years in federal prison.