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Millions of dollars stolen in just ten hours by crooks

An online security breach at RBS WorldPay that was reported to have exposed up to 1.5 million people to the possibility of ID theft last year went onto have startling results, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reports.

Cyber crooks who managed to steal the personal information at the electronic payment service are alleged to have stolen money from victims by cloning debit cards.

The cards were then distributed all over the world and used to steal $9million (£6million) by targeting 130 ATM machines in 49 cities - all in just ten hours.

Frank Bochte, an FBI spokesman in Chicago is quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying the scam was a highly coordinated effort.

"What makes this different than a typical case is the tremendous amount of coordination and the very high degree of sophistication that those behind this scam obviously have," he said.

RBS WorldPay admitted in December 2008 that its computer system had been "improperly accessed" leading to the theft.

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