Part 3 of Dave Thomas’ story of working as a cybercriminal for the FBI story is up on Wired, The Boards Come Crashing Down.
the russian connection
I Was A Cybercrook For The FBI
By 1.31.07
Parts 2 and 3 of the Dave Thomas Cybercrook story are up on Wired. The excellent report by Kim Zeter, two years in the making, offers a fascinating insight into the world of identity thieves, credit card scammers, phishers and all sorts of electronic fraud. Follow along as Dave transitions from petty thief, to cyber-crime master under the name “”El Mariachi” and with a James Cagney online avatar, to informant on the noose for the feds.
Cali Dollar Trees Source of ATM Hacks
By 8.3.06
Shopping at the Dollar Tree could end up costing you a lot. Hundreds of California patrons of the discount store report having money jacked from their debit accounts, reports KCRA. Most likely, this was through the use of cloned ATM cards.
Online Fraudster Interviewed
By 7.12.06
SmallWorldPodcast interviewed El Mariachi, a man who commits online fraud and identity theft. The interview reveals details about another scammer, Dillinger, who was involved with the ATM hacks of the ill-fabled “Russian Connection” scandal.
The News; Impotent Indignation
By 6.21.06
• The news is not that a data breach at VISA had a data breach that caused consumer’s debit cards to get stolen, it’s that they’re actually finally formally announcing it. “Visa Says ATM Breach May Have Exposed Data” [CT]
New Chase Debit Card Still Lets Vonage Screw Customer on Old Card
By 6.15.06
You would think that after Chase goes through the trouble of reissuing new Visa debit cards to replace its MasterCards, they might also take the precaution of deactivating the old card when the new one is activated. Not so, Disappointed in NYC writes. When our reader tried to cancel Vonage, they wanted to charge a cancellation fee. He refused but they still charged his old Chase Mastercard. Chase CSR said the Vonage charge went through but nothing else would.
John Dillinger Was a Bank Robber Who Walked Through Walls
By 6.12.06
Last week, we linked to an excellent interview where Bazooka Joe at Small World Podcast spoke with an individual going by the name of “John Dillinger” who participated in the big ATM PIN block crisis. His involvement was to embed blank cards with the hacked PINS, withdraw the money from ATMs, and send back a percentage to his uplink. John Dillinger commented on the post to make sure we got the story straight:
PIN Block Phish, Basted
By 6.12.06
Oh, this is just classic. Phishers are now trying to capitalize on the PIN block crisis.
Debit Card Hacker Interviewed
By 6.6.06
Small World’s Bazooka Joe interviews “John Dillinger,” a debit card hacker who participated in the infamous “Russian Connection” ATM hack scandal. He discusses how he and others hacked millions of debit card accounts and why the story never makes the mainstream news.
Thunder Before The Storm? Another Citibank Account ‘Compromised’
By 6.2.06
Buckle yourselves in, boys and girls. Is this email we just received from Kate H. the first rumbling of another massive slate of Citibank security breaches?
New Debit Card, Same Balogna Baloney
By 6.1.06
We received our happy super fun awesome new Washington Mutual GOLD debit card today.
Hidden Benefits of New Wamu Gold Card
By 5.12.06
Seems like we have yet another thing to look forward to when we receive our shiny new gold Wamu card we didn’t ask for.
Washington Mutual Is Our Friend With Benefits (That We Couldn’t Care Less About)
By 5.10.06
We’ve just been the lucky recipient of exciting news; the PIN range our debit card belongs to has been hacked. To celebrate, Washington Mutual is “upgrading” our debit card “to gold status for free.”
ATM Fraud Victim? CBS Wants to Talk
By 4.18.06
A CBS Evening News producer sent us a note today. She wants to do a story on the the big ATM PIN Block Scam story we made such a fuss about last month.
Citigroup Gets Around to Addressing PIN Compromises
By 4.4.06
Hey, remember all those debit cards and PINs that got stolen and stuff? Where hackers got into Office Max, made off with debit card accounts and encrypted PIN codes, decrypted the PINs, made counterfeit ATM cards, and withdraw lots of money and large amounts of people were forced to get their ATM card changed without anyone telling them the real reason why? Well, apparently Citigroup remembers too. Eventually.
Software Weak Link in ATM Scam Fingered
By 3.20.06
The mystery third party transaction software provider implicated in the ATM debit card scam scandal may have been named by VISA.
