A 3-man strategist with a $ 21 million vishing and smishing scheme

Three Roman citizens have pleaded guilty to using recorded messages and text messages on their mobile phones to urge thousands of people to reveal their social security numbers and bank account information, the federal authorities said.

"Vishing" and "smishing" scams are variants of phishing that use voice messages and SMS messages instead of emails, federal prosecutors said in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday. From 2011 to 2014, the three Romanians compromised computers located in the United States and installed an interactive voice response and e-mail en masse software. The hacked computers initiated thousands of phone calls and SMS messages that prompted recipients to reveal personal information, including account numbers, PINs, and Social Security numbers.

"When a victim received a phone call, the recipient was greeted by a recorded message mistakenly claiming to be a bank," said the federal prosecutor. The interactive voice response software would then prompt the victim to enter their personal information.When a victim was receiving a text message, this message was supposed to come from a bank and invited the recipient to call a hosted phone number. by compromised voice over Internet protocol When the recipient called the phone number, the interactive voice response software asked him to enter his personal information. "

Men stored stolen personal information on compromised computers. The stolen data was accessed by two of the suspects who then sold or used the information with the help of the third participant.

Robert Codrut Dumitrescu, 41, recently pleaded guilty to plotting wire fraud, fraud and computer abuse and aggravated identity theft. His conspirators, Teodor Laurentiu Costea, 42, and Cosmin Draghici, 29, pleaded guilty earlier this year. The three men came from Ploiesti, Romania, and were extradited to Atlanta last year.

At the time of their arrest, Dumitrescu had 3,278 financial account numbers, Costea had 36,050 and Draghici had 3,465. All the numbers obtained fraudulently by the vishing and smishing systems. On the basis of these figures, prosecutors estimated that the loss would exceed $ 21 million.

Costa and Draghici should be sentenced in June. Dumitrescu should be sentenced in July.