Brazilian police arrested 85 people on Thursday accused of stealing more than $33 million by hacking into the online bank accounts of unwitting Internet users, authorities said.
The raid -- dubbed Operation Pegasus -- was carried out by 410 federal police officers in seven states, making it one of the biggest crackdowns on electronic crime in Brazil.
In all, 105 arrest warrants were issued after a four-month investigation found that the suspects had pocketed about 80 million reais ($33.3 million) in the scam.
While most Brazilians do not have computers at home, studies show that those who do are among the most avid Internet users in the world, especially when it comes to private banking.
Brazil is also quickly gaining a reputation as a hotbed for computer hackers. Last month, a Brazilian research group called the Computer Emergency Response Team published a study showing that online fraud complaints in the country shot up 1,300 percent in the second quarter, jumping to 7,942 from just 562 a year earlier.
