Argentinean police have arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of masterminding an elaborate cyber fraud operation, that netted him around $50 000 per month.
He did this by diverting funds from online money transfer and gaming Web sites into his personal bank account.
According to Latin Times, the police have been on the trail of the hacker, who has not been named, for many months.
The accused, who lived with his father, a computer expert, is said to have been working from his bedroom, in Buenos Aires. Upon arrest, the police shut down the entire neighbourhood's power to ensure he did not destroy or delete compromising information that would be key to his successful prosecution.
He was found to have several high-end computers in his room.
The 19-year-old's arrest is part of a widespread police manhunt that began in 2012, called Operation Zombie. It began after a Web site hosting services organisation found that a hacker was remotely accessing its servers to intercept money transfers.
Garciela Gils Carbo, Argentina's chief prosecutor, initially ordered the investigation that uncovered that the same culprit was stealing money from online gambling sites, as well as transfers.
He said the hacker hosted a "malware virus in a server for downloading online gaming applications".
A report from the Argentine Ministry said the hackers employed denial of service manoeuvres that used thousands of zombie machines to bombard the target servers to ensure users were unable to access their accounts during the attack.
His arrest follows five police raids in Buenos Aires and a further one in the city of Rosario, that have seen six people identified in the scam.
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