Officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its Indian counterpart detained a Ukrainian national from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) for his involvement in Net fraud and identity theft.

The man, Sergey V. Storchak, was travelling on a Jetlite flight S2 120 (Goa-Mumbai-Delhi).

He is alleged to have been involved in the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. Sources said 11 people were involved in the fraud and Storchak was one of them.

Officials said that the accused used to obtain the credit and debit card numbers by 'wardriving' and hacking into the wireless networks of major retailers in the US.Once inside the network, they installed 'sniffer' programmes that would capture card numbers, as well as password and account information.

After collecting the data, the accused used to conceal it in encrypted servers that they could control from Eastern Europe and the US. The stolen numbers were 'cashed out' by encoding card numbers on the magnetic strips of blank cards. They then used these cards to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at a time from the ATMs.

The US justice department had described it as the largest hacking and identity theft case ever in the country.

The FBI intimated the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about his presence in Delhi. Officers from the CBI, FBI and Delhi Police waited at the terminal, a CISF team went to the aircraft and escorted Storchak out and handed him over to the CBI.

Sources said that the FBI cannot arrest Storchak in India and will have to initiate the extradition process.

Ref: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/96990/India/Ukrainian+in+bigg...