The 8 Steps Behind The Massive $45M Cyber Bank Heist

4. Money Mules Strike ATMs Globally

Once the cybercriminal organization distributed the account information, the receiving individuals, or mules, encoded the data onto magnetic stripe cards, such as gift cards and hotel key cards, to withdraw the funds from ATMs. Investigators found the men conducting numerous transactions in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, among other U.S. locations. At first, the transactions were low, indicating the men were testing the cards. Even still, the scheme involved more than 5,700 attempted ATM transactions using the RAKBank account data, resulting in a total loss of approximately $5 million.