Rome: United States prosecutors have charged an Australian man with 11 counts of fraud, computer security breaches and money laundering in an alleged cyberscam that skimmed more than $47 million ($US31 million) from elderly Americans across several states.
Andrew Brolese, a dual Australian-Italian citizen, was arrested by Italian border police at Malpensa Airport in Milan on October 18 after he landed on a flight from Singapore.
According to investigators, Brolese, 44, is a resident of Australia, New Zealand and Monaco. He had been wanted by the FBI for more than three years for alleged crimes in states including Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.
The Australian was arrested after an investigation by the FBI, whose agents are pictured in a file photo.Credit: AP Photo
After his arrest, Brolese was transferred to Busto Arsizio prison, 35 kilometres north of Milan, where he is facing extradition to the US.
According to his indictment, released by the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, Brolese and his partner allegedly used “malicious pop-ups” in an international conspiracy to disable users’ computers and direct them to fake call centres where victims were asked to pay for technical support to restore their service.
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The indictment claims that the pair, through their company Digital Marketing Support Services (DMSS), “knowingly and intentionally devised and intended to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretences, representations and promises”.
“[DMSS], along with its affiliated entities, was a company incorporated in the Seychelles that published and sold malicious pop-ups as a means of generating customer traffic for call centres,” the indictment says.
“At least 10 of the victims of the tech support scheme were over the age of 55,” the indictment says.