Know how when you go into your online checking account you can click on checks that you’ve written and see the scanned image of them? Well, those pictures have to be stored somewhere, and they’re not always secure. Russian crooks broke into three sites that store archival check images, stole the information, and wrote over $9 million in phony checks against over 1,200 accounts.

In order to keep the money, though, the crooks have to recruit “money mules” through online job posting sites to unwittingly launder the checks and send the thieves money from their own accounts, as we talked about recently in “Watch A Money Mule Scam Unfold.”

The security research firm that discovered the breach said that they’ve notified the affected sites who have since sealed up the gaps, but the scam is still operating and targeting other image archival companies.

Hm, what’s the digital equivalent of the phrase, “hanging paper?”

Savvy fake check scam goes viral [TheSunNews] (Thanks To Robert!)

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