king! >> but then he lost control of his own life. now rulon gardner is riegt to redeem himself. the question is can he still compete at age 40? also it's enough to make you miss the era when pregnant moms drank heavily and smoked like chimneys. "mad men" is back on the air and they have allowed us behind the scenes. >> i often have to light a cigarette for someone. i always carry a little vacuum. and the sound we cannot get away from. it happens everywhere and it has happened to most of us, and cell phones are here to stay. they can really ruin a performance. tonight our report uninterrupted as "rock center" gets under way. good evening and welcome to "rock center." we begin tonight with an investigation by richard engel that uncovers a scary new kind of theft, and it's scary because any of us can fall victim and get cleaned out at any time. when we hear about online attacks by hackers, we usually think of shadowy groups bent either on political mischief or corporate espionage of some sort. but some groups are now using the same sophisticated technology to target personal computers and steal your savings in the process. but there is also a surprising hero in this. richard now reports on a whole new breed of computer thieves trolling around for easy money. >> reporter: for nearly 400 years, nestled on a serene coastal inlet, dartmouth, massachusetts, seemed out of harm's way, protected, safe. residents here might never have believed they would become the target of one of the most sophisticated international crimes ever carried out. >> i was just numb. i didn't know what was happening. >> reporter: joan harwood plays her part in keeping her community safe, managing the payroll and expenses part-time for her local fire department. working from home in early 2010, she had trouble logging on to the department's bank account. her computer was slow, acted up. then crashed. joan called the bank. >> they just told me that some wire transfers had been made from our account. >> reporter: and you said what wire transfers, i didn't make any wire transfers? >> exactly. >> reporter: when she was able to access the account, she was dumb founded. >> it was six transactions, almost depleting the account for zero. >> how much money was missing? >> almost $400,000. >> reporter: nearly half of the fire department's annual budget was gone. stolen. >> how did you feel when you saw all of those withdrawals? >> devastated. >> reporter: as joan struggled to comprehend what was happening, why it was that a fire department in a little town of dartmouth, massachusetts, had been robbed so blindly, she had no idea that across the country, dozens of other institutions had also been hit. some even harder. in des moines, iowa, a catholic diocese was taken for nearly $700,000. a mississippi retirement home and a chicago bakery were also fleeced. and a michigan facility manufacturing prototype parts for the defense department was hit for $5.2 million. in all, some 400 american businesses and organizations were robbed over the internet. >> is it fair to say that this was the biggest cyber crime in u.s. history? >> it's one of the largest that we've seen by an organized group. >> reporter: fbi assistant director shawn henry, one of the country's top cyber crime fighters says most of the businesses and organizations were taken by a single group of computer hackers. >> they actually got away with close to $70 million. >> $70 million? >> reporter: but when it came to cracking the case, it wasn't the fbi that played the critical role, it was a university professor and a group of volunteers. >> this was a high priority thing for us. we called the fbi and said we need to brief headquarters on this today. if money is missing out of your account, who do you call? do you call the police? no, you call your bank. >> reporter: his name is gary warner, a professor at the university of alabama at birmingham, whose unique program combined computer forensics and justice. >> so you teach people to fight cyber crime? >> that's right. >> reporter: warner is also a member of infragard, an off-the-radar fbi-affiliated group of about 50,000 members. they monitor the internet and critical infrastructure. >> is it like a private citizens watch group? >> that would be a good way to describe it. >> reporter: warner had discovered a dramatic spread of a malicious computer superbug called zeus. the bug spies on users as they type, copies passwords, targeting online banking. >> it knows you're on the name of your bank here website. and when it sees you typing into the bank's website, it knows which screen on that website has your user i.d. and password. >> reporter: once the hackers use zeus to steal your password, your bank account may as well be theirs. zeus even sends the hackers a convenient text message alerting them when the account is ready to rob. >> within seconds someone is on your computer doing that wire transfer. >> reporter: warner red flagged the fbi after he made a critical breakthrough. he found a common link between hundreds of thousands of zeus-infected computers. he mapped out the connections in charts that looked like abstract art. the trail led 5,000 miles away to eastern europe, to ukraine. >> who are the masterminds? >> they were people we had never heard of before. these guys were new people. they were establishing a better technology and using it in a way we hadn't seen used before. some organizers and coders who said we're going to change the way people steal money. >> reporter: the hackers targeted business payroll accounts, transferring stolen cash to personal accounts inside the united states rather than make slower and riskier international transfers. >> that's where the timing comes in. this particular group of zeus professionals, i have to respect them and call them professionals, they're criminals, but they had their organization down. >> reporter: not just good organization, but dazzling ingenuity. to get their hands on $70 million in cash, the hackers turned people into money mules. >> the first money mule activity we started seeing was people who would receive an e-mail saying you can get a work-at-home job. >> reporter: the work-at-home job schemes employed more than 3,000 people, many of them unwitting american citizens who opened bank accounts where they received illegal deposits. >> they would receive many $9,000 to $10,000 payments into their account. they would take the money out and wire a quarter million dollars to the ukraine. people would take 10% commission and it worked. >> reporter: after banks got wise to the schemes, the hackers came up with an even boulder plan. they recruited dozens of students from eastern europe, arranged fake passports and u.s. work study visas for them and packed them off to the united states as the new breed of money mule. >> and they said your job is we want you to use assumed identities and go in and establish bank accounts. >> the mules, these students arrive in the united states and they open bank accounts under false names with fake passports? >> right. it's still a little gray on whether the students who were recruited knew that they were being recruited for crime. >> reporter: but if they didn't know at first, they would soon. as soon as the hackers made transfers to the mule accounts in the united states, the mules immediately withdrew the stolen cash. then they sent the money by western union or moneygram to ukraine or other countries, or else they brazenly stuffed tens of thousands of dollars in cash into duffel bags and flew home, taking their 10% cut. >> they had probably seen their friends make lots of money and come home and assume they would come to the united states, make lots of money and go home. >> reporter: some did, others were arrested, but not all of them. after the fbi released a poster of mules still at large, gary warner made finding them a pet project in his computer lab. he decided the best people to track down a bunch of cyber savvy students was another group of cyber savvy students, his own. >> and i posted the poster, handed it out to the kids and said, hey, go find these guys. >> you made finding these suspects, these money mules, a class project? >> that's right. so the students began crawling facebook pages and v contact, a russian version of facebook, and were able to quickly identify profile pages of almost all of the at-large mules. >> they had facebook pages? >> they had facebook pages with amazing pictures. one of the young ladies is sitting in her apartment with a shocked look on her face with spread $100 bills. nice profile picture. >> not too smart. >> right. >> another one has a warmup jacket that says "i love new york" and he's surrounded by the people he just bought drinks for. >> this was a treasure trove of information for you? >> we had a good time with it in the lab honestly. >> reporter: in september, 2010, in an unprecedented fbi transnational sting operation, most of the hackers were taken down. in the united states, most of the money mules were fined, served time in prison and were deported. but the fbi says some could still be lurking here. many of the businesses and organizations that were hit recovered most of their funds, although many had to fight with their banks. in dartmouth, the fire department was lucky, and quickly got back nearly all of its money. joan credits her bank's quick thinking. one of the money mules was caught red-handed trying to withdraw the department's stolen cash. >> how did you feel when the money came back? >> oh, my gosh. it was a relief. i think i cried then too. >> reporter: but we haven't seen the last of zeus. >> zeus infections are rampant still today. there are probably millions of computers in the united states that have active zeus on their machines right now. >> reporter: that's why fbi executive assistant director shawn henry warns that without greater vigilance, there will be more cyber theft. >> the opportunity for these groups to make more money online with a perceived less risk is increasing. >> why risk robbing a bank with a gun when you can do it from the safety of your home on a computer? >> that's the perception. we've had people sitting halfway around the world in their pajamas with a wireless laptop who are able to access banks around the world without ever leaving the comfort of their home. >> reporter: henry says some agencies calculate american losses to cyber criminals in the hundreds of billions. >> one recently calculated the annual cost at $385 billion a year. >> reporter: and he says future losses could be even greater, if we don't wake up to the threats. >> if i were to tell somebody that there was a bomb in their house, they'd get out. but if i tell somebody that there's somebody in their computer, it just does not resonate because they oftentimes don't see anything missing. >> reporter: who is protecting american computers right now? >> consumers are responsible for their home computer just like you're responsible for protecting the outside of your house. if the fbi gets involved, something bad has already happened. >> richard engel reporting for us tonight. by the way, there are a few simple steps you can take to protect yourself online. we've put a list of them on our website, rockcenternbc.com. coming up a bit later on tonight, he went from olympic gold medal winner to reality show loser and now wrestling legend rulon gardner is working his way back at the age of 40. harry smith is right there with him. and next up, the wait is over. "mad men" swaggers its way onto tv. we'll talk to its creator, we'll learn more of the secrets of its impeccable and exacting style. >> this is one of my favorite dresses actually that betty wore in season two. >> i don't understand. hello, it is i your boss. great news! the video call went very very well. asia is on board. too bad you couldn't participate. probably you were worried about overages on that limited data plan you use. perhaps you shouldn't have uploaded so many vacation photos. ooh. ah. these shorts are for a younger person wouldn't you say. [ male announcer ] why limit your iphone? switch to sprint the only network with truly unlimited data for your iphone. [ female announcer ] it's the lenscrafters semi-annual lens event. that's 50% off lenses, including bifocals, no-lines, even sunglasses made with your prescription. so hurry in. sale ends april 1st. lenscrafters. 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(singing) i can't stoooo-ooop. laugh with us, win with us. join our team. we need your help. this is the winning team. winners! go hard or go home. if we win, you win. saturday nights. on nbc. learn the secrets of "mad men's" style. >> where the hell have you been? >> this is the reception area here. it's very colorful. we are, of course, supposed to serve the drama rather than just create beautiful pictures. >> how'd it go? >> get back to work. >> if it looks good on camera, then i feel like i've done my job well. one of the challenges we have on the show is that we're shooting an advertising agency which is set in period new york city. what's outside the windows is not something we can travel to new york and photograph directly. the ad agency is set in the time life building, which is directly across the street from rockefeller center. >> last season we brought in a candy vending machine which was something that we had to find in a very short period of time. i found a couple in oregon that was on craigslist and they were selling their candy machine that worked. safer than cigarettes. >> these are herbal cigarettes, filters cut off. how they can smoke them and look like they're enjoying them is beyond me, because they're disgusting. >> i often have to light a cigarette for someone. i always carry a little vacuum to light a cigarette. so when we're shooting in draper's office, we have canadian club ready to go. >> cheers. >> this is a concoction of water and caramel food coloring, it has no alcohol. >> again. >> so they can drink a lot of it. >> why is this empty? >> because you drank it all. >> people don't save old liquor bottles, so we'll build a label. it's hard. it's hard to make it exactly perfect, but we do our best. we have a guy who makes our ice cubes. he makes particular one-inch square ice cube that say just look like every advertisement that i pull out of a magazine. milk carton came from an antique mall. the sanka jar is perfect. we remade the label, we found the top. it's got to be right or it doesn't feel right to us, it doesn't feel right to the actors. >> here we are at the "mad men" costume shop. as you can see, it's just like rows and rows of clothing. this is one of my favorite dresses actually that betty wore in season two. >> i don't understand. >> i really need a garment that was going to be able to tell a story of the breakdown of betty. >> are you okay, mommy? >> i named it the sad clown dress. i really do love slips and i love foundations and undergarments. basically you wouldn't leave the house without your girdle. that was such a huge part of getting dressed and also such a huge part of how the costumes look for the show. and people are so fascinated with all those details because i think it's something that we really don't do anymore. >> the girdle thing especially. as devoted fans of the show know, the person most responsible for the incredible look and feel and rhythm of "mad men" is the show's creator, matthew weiner. i caught up with him as season five gets ready to start on march 25th. for a show on basic cable with about half the viewers of "jersey shore," it sure gets its share of time and attention and ink, including what may be the ultimate tribute, it's already been parodied. >> well, hello. >> don draper. >> let's get me out of this skirt. >> jon hamm being on "saturday night live" and seeing the show lampooned is one of the things to check off your list of having a successful, creative experience. it was surreal for me. >> is this another thing to check off your list? >> some things weren't even on my list. >> ought only a cover story on the show, which happens all the time, a themed issue back to your era. this is as great a tribute as anything it strikes me. >> it's sort of like having a time machine, going back and sticking yourself in a picture. it's incredible. >> weiner is such a stickler for historical accuracy, from props to dialogue, that when something rings untrue for the time, "mad men" fans quickly call him out. there have been a few glaring examples of expressions of today repackaged as the things that were said back then. >> 1960, i'm so over you. >> i will get her so pregnant. >> it was going great until it wasn't. >> the quotes i killed you on my blog on it was going great until it wasn't. >> some of that stuff is not accurate. >> i would get her so pregnant. >> yeah, expressions are tough because believe it or not, a lot of the expression that say we identify with the '60s and even the '80s are from the '20s. so things come in and out, right? so you'll hear someone this year say the word bitchin, but it's a car culture word from the early '50s. and some of it just happens. some of it just slips through. >> and weiner is putting out a fire before it even flares up. based on just the observations from a few critics who have already seen an advance copy of this sunday night's premiere, he is already removing a song, "the look of love" before it airs sunday because the song didn't exist within the time frame. >> "the new york times" has a great quote. to a large extent weiner and his staff members brought this festival of nitpickery on themselves through their own perfectionism. that's a great sentence. >> i think it's true. >> you must hate the nitpickers. >> i don't, because i want people to watch it with the idea with some safety that it's real. and i made the commitment dramatically to tie it to the calendar. >> oh, boy, you did. >> and i feel like it's an extra effort, but you know what, creatively it's a great thing because people asked me what did this look like and i say what did it look like? >> so you have prop manager who say would probably kill you if they had the choice. >> they love it because usually people are whatever you want. they come in and say we got this ceramic elephant from my aunt. it's japanware, the first thing japan made after world war ii. americans bought them up like crazy. i was like put it in the show. >> whatever could be on your mind? >> how do you know when it's over? >> i can tell you that every year that you do the show, if you commit yourself to not repeating yourself, if you really say i don't want to fall into formula, no one does it deliberately, but there's a certain point where you're doing procedural, it can go on and on, you can change characters. it's fascinating to me because i get asked a lot about the end now and i'm a person like d