swifts aren't really that complicated - they're a bit odd to someone who's never dealt with them before, perhaps, but not rocket science

if you've gone to all the effort of planning this kind of caper, how could you possibly let such a fundamental part of the plan go wrong?

It's always the same - bumbling crooks failed in biggest ever fraud attempt due to schoolboy errors.

Makes me wonder, how many unreported cases where the crooks actually got away with it?

Although, I dont suppose the banks will ever admit to the true scale of that problem.

When I worked at SWIFT I was told the tale of the mafia gang who had invented a fictious island nation, complete with lots of supporting national websites and mentions on forums. Their 'national bank' applied for SWIFT membership and the scam was only caught because someone eventually looked at an atlas.

Even if they filled out the forms correctly, multi-million dollar/pound/euro international transfers get noticed rather quickly. It's better to move just a couple thousand every week or two so it looks like a regular payment to some outsourced contractor. You can keep that up for years before anyone catches on, at which point your money-laundering system should have become so complex that they'll never get through it.

@Jesus Puncher: "Makes me wonder, how many unreported cases where the crooks actually got away with it?"

None. By definition, you're not a crook unless someone notices. ^_^

Get admin rights - check

Install keylogger - check

Retrieve passwords - check

Fill in form - oooh. Not done one of these before. Does it have to be in block capitals, do you think? And what format do they want the date?

I just hope those on-the-ball admin staff who saved hundreds of millions haven't been laid off or offshored to India since the Meltdown.

I think they've used hardware keyloggers and didn't installed any software on the actual box.

I hear they were, at the time of capture, planning The Other Other Operation.