A Norwegian caught in undercover cyber crime investigation

One Norwegian has been caught in a wide ranging cyber crime investigation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States and other law enforcement authorities across the world. The 25-year old individual is listed to be from Porsgrunn, Telemark county, Norway and has been charged with two counts of access device fraud: possession of unauthorized devices and affecting transactions with unauthorized devices as well as aggravated identity theft. He allegedly used hacking tools to steal information from internal databases of a bank, hotel and other retailers and then sold the information forward, reportedly to an undercover agent in one instance.

The 2-year investigation was dubbed as the largest coordinated international law enforcement action in history directed at carding crimes such as exploit of stolen credit cards, bank accounts and other personal identification using the internet. The investigation reportedly saved the banks hundreds of millions involving stolen information of over 400 000 credit cards. Altogether some 24 individuals have been arrested across 8 countries and charges will be brought against a large number of people, a few of whom remain at large. Authorities in Denmark also contributed to the investigation.