According to information forwarded Wednesday by FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller, the agency has begun its 'operation' of arresting the online 'phishing' scam suspects, who obtained bank account information for stealing money from customer accounts.

As a result of the scam, which tricked account holders at two leading US banks - Bank of America and Wells Fargo - into revealing their passwords, bank-account information, and Social Security numbers, nearly $2 million were stolen from 2007 to September this year.

As many as 53 suspects were named in the 86-page indictment, filed in US District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Out of these, 33 have already been arrested, along with 47 un-indicted accomplices from Egypt.

The three ringleaders, all Californians, were: the mastermind, Kenneth Joseph Lucas, 25; his former girlfriend, Nichole Michelle Merzi, 24; and Jonathan Preston Clark, 25.

The FBI said the defendants sent mass e-mail messages to the scam victims, asking them to enter personal information. The victims clicked on the e-mail messages, only to be linked to fake Web sites that appeared similar to the real banking sites.

Keith B. Bolcar, the acting chief of the FBI's Los Angeles bureau, said that while the online component of the bank fraud was carried out in Egypt; the US co-conspirators later took over, transferred funds into their own accounts, and passed on the share of their accomplices in Egypt.