Slashdot Mirror
Hacker Resells VOIP For Profit
uncleO writes "The New York Times tells the story of today's arrest of Edwin Andres Pena, 23, who 'hacked into computers run by an unsuspecting investment company in Rye Brook, N.Y., commandeered its unprotected servers, and re-routed his phone traffic through them,' then 'used more than $1 million he received from his customers to go on a spending spree, buying real estate in south Florida, a 40-foot Sea Ray Mercruiser motor boat, and luxury cars including a BMW and a Cadillac Escalade.'"
This link points to a CNN story about a forger who donated much of the money from an investment scam to his college, NYU. Of course, that was just a front for another stereotypical spending spree: a Porsche and a Tiffany diamond, among other things.
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
When will they learn? If you ever find a get rich quick scheme that ACTUALLY WORKS and makes you millions you should spend it slowly. Don't go for the Escalade and McLaren. Don't buy a home on the coast of Florida. Do learn about banks in Switzerland.
Funnypics
I used to work in the VoIP business writing software a few years ago. There's A LOT of illegal activity that goes on. Much more than you think. Espically in wholesale. These guys do this stuff all the time. I guess the real story is that it happened in the US. Mostly it happens outside of the US. But trust me, it happens all the time. The shitty thing is, you have to pay for minutes you were ripped off. It's one of the few businesses that you can have stolen more than you have. If I have a warehouse ripped off, I am only out the equipment in that warehouse. With tollfraud, I can be out 300,000 dollars more than my whole business is worth.
It's bound to happen. A lot of these guys just buy a cheap-o softswitch and throw it in a noc. Some of them do their billing in MS Access.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
in this little tale is man by the name of Robert Moore(RTFA), who did all the hacking.
But in order to do this, new accounts with the SIP registrar servers had to be created, so how the hell did those go undetected? Also, there seems to be a misunderstanding about the Invesment company. In the end you HAVE to have real IPs even if you use proxy servers because that's how you communicate.
I dont think it's possible to use port forwarding with current protocols. Or am I wrong?
They claim it cost them $300,000. I doubt they were adding additional hardware to meet capacity because he was using their systems. More likely this number is mostly bullshit, and takes into account time spent dealing with it once it was discovered, and bandwidth bills. Your theory also neglects to take into account the startup cost of building a business like that, overhead, et cetera. It's a lot easier to be profitable when someone else is paying the bills, and has already built the infrastructure.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
First you set up an offshore legal entity. It should raise the invoices and receive the payments. There should be no visible link between the entity and you and the entity should not be registered/domiciled in a country of increased risk for money laundering.
Forget Swiss accounts, they are passe and the numbered accounts (anonymous) are no more. Useful for avoiding a bit of income tax but that is about it. Even then, if you are high-profile (i.e., involved in illegal activities), the Swiss won't want your money.
Even a lesser known friend, Austria is trying to phase out the bearer savings-accounts, i.e., he who has the savings-book has account access, without giving a name.
Lichtenstein is slightly more positive but even there beneficiaries aren't totally anonymous. The Caribbean is definitely out because even if you find a neutral risk country there, the transactions are watched closely because of drugs. Forget shell-banks, they aren't considered acceptable at all.
Although the money involved with financing 9/11 was minuscule, this has been used as an excuse to force through anti-money-laundering legislation so large cash transactions and international payments are monitored closely. If you are in the US or the UK, it is quite hard now but not totally impossible. The easiest is to live outside either country if you want to enjoy your criminal gains.
Note anyone taking the above seriously must remember that you can launder money and get away with it, but you may find the places that will take you are not the places you want to live!!!!
See my journal, I write things there