News

Cops seek crooks, cash after $2.6M ATM jackpotting in Taiwan

July 21, 2016

Authorities in Taiwan have been busy rounding up suspected criminals and stolen cash following an early-July jackpotting spree that netted $2.6 million in a single day from 41 ATMs operated by Taiwan's First Commercial Bank.

According to various news sources, the crime was instigated by a pair of Russian nationals who infected the bank's ATMs with three variants of jackpotting malware.

Using a laptop or mobile phone, the thieves were able to command the machines to dispense all of their contents at once.

Authorities believe that the two Russians left Taiwan the next day as a three-man cash crew arrived from eastern Europe to collect the money and attempt to smuggle it out of the country.

Police arrested the three suspected money mules — including one Latvian and two Romanians — in Taipei. Another 13 foreign nationals — including the two Russians — are being sought in connection with the crime. All have left Taiwan.

Authorities recovered the bulk of the cash from a Taipei hotel room a week after the theft. The Latvian suspect later led police to a bag of cash hidden next to a little-used hiking trail in a city park.

Between the two discoveries, all but about $312,000 of the stolen money has now been recovered, news sources have reported. Authorities believe the remaining cash is still in Taiwan, as none of the 13 suspects who fled the country left with a large sum of cash.

ATMs targeted in the theft were made by Wincor Nixdorf, however, the company said that machines by other makers have been jackpotted in similar crimes.

(Background for this story was compiled from Fortune, Reuters and Taipei Times.)