A famous Romanian hacker nicknamed Virus was caught in traffic in Sinaia, Prahova County, over the weekend despite the fact that his car was equipped with an ingenious system for changing license plates.
The 42-year-old man was pulled over following an alert generated by the automatic license plate recognition system installed on a police vehicle. At first, he presented fake identity documents, apparently issued by Italy, while the license plates appeared to belong to the diplomatic corps, according to Euronews Romania.
During checks, police found that the car was equipped with two sets of license plates, both the fake ones observed in traffic and some real ones, plus a rotating system that allowed them to be changed quickly. In addition, the individual had a suspended driving license.
He was detained, and investigations showed that he was a famous hacker. The man had run a service that allowed cybercriminals to distribute dangerous viruses, which infected more than one million computers around the world, including those belonging to NASA.
The hackers stole passwords and personal data from several people in different countries, accessed their bank accounts and transferred their money. After being pursued for many years and eventually arrested in Colombia, the Romanian was extradited to the US and sentenced in 2023 to three years in prison. The US authorities confiscated USD 3.5 million from him.
The man, whose real name is Ionuț Mihai Păunescu, had served the sentence handed down by US judges in Romania, so he was no longer wanted by the authorities, but he preferred to drive around with two sets of license plates.
“Police officers from the Sinaia Resort Police Station ordered the 24-hour detention of a 42-year-old man from the municipality of Bucharest, who is being investigated for the offenses of driving a vehicle on public roads by a person whose right to drive has been suspended, identity fraud, and putting into circulation or driving on public roads a vehicle with a false registration number,” said Alexandru Niță, spokesperson for the Prahova County Police Inspectorate.
A judge, however, changed the measure to 30-day house arrest.
(Photo source: Vlad Ispas|Dreamstime.com)
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