Computer hackers, like banks, manage to get away with financial malfeasance.
It used to be that the underworld was where you would expect to find ATM thieves. But the world has changed, and with it the way that bank crimes are being committed.
Take for example news reports about a “global posse” of cyber thieves who made off with some $45 million from bank ATMs in 26 countries in what authorities are calling a first-of-its kind cybercrime heist.
Armed not with guns, but with laptops, this group of hackers managed not only to get into the computer networks of financial companies in the U.S. and India, but also to do away with the ATM cash withdrawal limits on prepaid debit cards.
The good news here is that no individuals lost money. Instead, the crooks plundered money held by banks.
Just seven people have been indicted. An eighth, considered to be the ringleader, was found dead in the Dominican Republic.
It was a sophisticated crime that essentially turned the tables on the banking industry – which over the years has found ways to manipulate the financial markets and create one of the largest economic crises in U.S. history.
The difference between what happened with the ATM heist and what some of the country’s biggest banks have, and continue to do, is that those thieves got caught and will be punished – and the ringleader is dead. But America’s banks continue to manipulate the market and get away with this financial malfeasance because, as we all know, they are considered too big to fail
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