Facebook's internal security team helped name people around the globe suspected of being involved in online crime rings that stole identities and defrauded victims of more than $850 million, the FBI said today.
The US department of justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and international law enforcement agencies arrested 10 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru, the UK and the US, who are suspected of being members of the crime rings, the FBI said in a statement on its website today.
Numerous search warrants have also been issued, it said.
The crime rings are linked to variants of the Yahos malicious software, which used a so-called Butterfly Botnet to steal computer users' credit card, bank account and other personal information, according to the FBI.
More than 11 million computer systems were compromised, the agency said.
Facebook helped in identifying the perpetrators and those affected by the malware, the FBI said. Yahos targeted Facebook users from 2010 until October this year, according to the FBI.