Two Romanian residents convicted of using malware, cryptojacking and stealing millions

Two Romanian cybercriminals have been convicted of 21 counts, The U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Bogdan Nicolescu and Radu Miclaus were convicted of "conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit service marks, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit money laundering and 12 counts each of wire fraud." 

They started out in 2007, sending out malicious emails posing as institutions like Western Union, Norton AntiVirus and the IRS. If the receiver clicked on an attached file, malware would download emails from the infected computer. They then intercepted sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card information. They also placed over 1,000 fake listings on auction sites, such as eBay, where the buyers never received bought items or their money back.

They infected computers to mine cryptocurrencies and steal information to sell on the dark web. They managed to infect over 400,000 computers, most of them located in the U.S. The operation in all netted the pair millions of dollars.

They will be sentenced on Aug. 14.