Dozens more are charged in Ploutus ATM jackpotting conspiracy
TL;DR
31 people indicted for using Ploutus malware to steal over $5.4 million from ATMs in a complex conspiracy involving surveillance and hardware manipulation.
Source: The Record
The Department of Justice Jan. 26 announced a federal grand jury indictment charging 31 people for participating in a conspiracy to steal millions from ATMs by deploying Ploutus malware. The Justice Department has said that between Feb. 2024 and Dec. 2025, the gang stole at least $5.4 million from at least 63 ATMs, most of which belonged to credit unions. The scheme was complex and required gang members to surveil potential target ATMs and then open the doors of machines they decided to hit to see if alarms went off. If law enforcement did not respond to the ATMs being opened, gang members would then allegedly take out the ATMs’ hard drives and replace them with ones equipped with Ploutus or would connect thumb drives that unleashed the malware. Full Story