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About two dozen people have been arrested in a sting targeting a black market for online financial fraud from four continents, federal officials in New York have said. According to Fox News, US officials called the crackdown in United States, Europe, Asia and Australia the largest enforcement effort ever against hackers who stole credit card, bank and other information on the Internet, a practice known as 'carding'. The officials claimed the two-year FBI sting protected more than 400,000 potential victims and prevented losses of around 205 million dollars. The arrests "cause significant disruption to the underground economy and are a stark reminder that masked IP addresses and private forums are no sanctuary for criminals and are not beyond the reach of the FBI," Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI's New York office, said. In June 2010, undercover investigators set up their own website 'as an online meeting place where the FBI could locate cyber criminals, investigate and identify them and disrupt their activities.' According to a criminal complaint opened in federal court in Manhattan , the suspects bought and sold hacking programs and stolen information through secure websites. Undercover agents bought stolen data related to 15 American Express, MasterCard and Discover accounts from the defendant, the complaint said. Investigators made 11 arrests in various states, including New York, Florida and California. Thirteen others were arrested in the United Kingdom , Bosnia , Norway , Italy, Japan and eight other countries.

FBI arrests two dozen people over massive global online financial fraud