Chinese National Arrested in Multi-Million Dollar Global Botnet Scam
Summary:
Yune Wang, a Chinese national, has been arrested by the U.S. Department of Justice for his alleged involvement in a global botnet scam that affected over 19 million IP addresses and facilitated a variety of computer-enabled crimes. The botnet scam deceived users with a fake VPN service, allowing the perpetrator to illicitly seize their IP addresses and sell them to cybercriminals. Wang's digital wallet addresses held illegal commissions exceeding $130 million. Some fraudulent activities targeted pandemic relief programs, causing losses exceeding $5.9 billion. Law enforcement officials seized 23 domains and 70 servers related to the operations, as well as $30 million in assets.
National from the People's Republic of China and citizen by investment of St. Kitts and Nevis, Yune Wang, 35, has been apprehended by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on charges related to a botnet scam. The scam was allegedly used for cyber attacks, widespread fraud, child exploitation, harassment, bomb threats, and export violations. The indictment from May 29 claims Wang illicitly fabricated and circulated malware to compromise and assemble a network of millions of residential Windows computers across the globe. This affected over 19 million IP addresses via the 911 S5 botnet from 2014 to 2022. The accused is said to have sold the hijacked IP addresses to cybercriminals in exchange for cryptocurrencies. The victims were from over "200 countries", and the resulting crimes included financial frauds, identity theft, and child exploitation.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis conducted separate research which revealed that digital wallet addresses associated with Wang collectively held an excess of $130 million in digital assets, allegedly accumulated through illegal commissions. According to Chainalysis, the 911 S5 botnet provided its services by distributing deceptively free VPN services to its victims, claiming to offer better privacy while browsing the internet. However, the reality was that 911 S5 incorporated backdoors in its coding to unlawfully seize the IP addresses of millions of global victims. The scheme allowed the administrators of 911 S5 to earn millions of dollars annually by offering a subscription service allowing cybercriminals to use the targeted victims' IP addresses.
In addition, DOJ law enforcement officials stated that the 911 S5 customers apparently aimed at certain pandemic relief programs. According to the United States' estimates, approximately 560,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims were made from the compromised IP addresses, leading to confirmed fraudulent loss exceeding $5.9 billion.
The law enforcement authorities of the United States, Singapore, Thailand, and Germany collaboratively seized 23 domains over 70 servers, which formed the backbone of Wang's operations. The police also managed to confiscate $30 million in assets linked to 911 S5. Recently, Cointelegraph reported allegations of China's Trojan Horse in the US Bitcoin mining infrastructure through locally manufactured application-specific integrated circuit mining rigs. Experts suggest these rigs allow Chinese intelligence agencies to conduct cyber-espionage, potentially targeting sensitive military installations, power grids, or communication networks. Related: Asia Express – 3AC’s $700M Worldcoin windfall and China's battle against the crypto spies.
Published At
5/30/2024 4:28:32 PM
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