Turkish hacker gets prison term for massive cyber theft scheme

The Turkish mastermind behind a sophisticated global scheme to steal $55 millions in three waves of ATM attacks was sentenced Friday to 8 years in prison in Brooklyn federal court.

Ercan Findikoglu, 35, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other charges last year, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto.

He helped lead an international ring of hackers that stole debit card account numbers and PINs, eliminated limits on the accounts, then used “cashing crews” to make mass ATM withdrawals using forged cards.

In one of the attacks, a crew working in the New York area withdrew $2.4 million in 3,000 transactions over 10 hours.

Officials called Findikoglu “one of the world’s most prolific cyber criminals” and lauded the 8-year prison term.

“Today’s sentence effectively neutralizes Findikoglu for years, and also should serve as a strong warning to those who seek to abuse their technical skills to breach the networks of trusted financial institutions,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers.