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Stealing From Banks One Cent at a Time

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the not-like-atm-fees-steal-from-you dept.

JRHelgeson writes "In a story strangely reminiscent of Superman 3, a 'hacker' allegedly stole over $50,000 from PayPal, Google Checkout as well as several unnamed online brokerage firms. When opening an online brokering account it is common practice for companies such as E-trade and Schwab to send a tiny payment — ranging from only a few cents to a couple of dollars — to verify that the user has access to the bank account listed. According to the story, the attacker wrote a script that opened thousands of accounts at dozens of these providers. He was arrested not for taking the money, but for using false names in order to get it."

27 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Comment from said "hacker" by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 5, Funny

    When reached for comment, the "hacker" had this to say:

    "I don't want to go to jail because there are robbers and rapers and rapers who rape robbers. "
    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    1. Re:Comment from said "hacker" by s.bots · · Score: 5, Funny

      Looks like someone could be doin' time in a "Federal 'pound-me-in-the-ass' Prison"...

      Hey Mike! Watch out for your cornhole buddy!

    2. Re:Comment from said "hacker" by rugatero · · Score: 5, Funny

      What makes him a "hacker"?

      He used a computer.

      Heck he even wrote a script. In the eyes of your average Joe that makes him a diabolical hacking genius.

      --
      This comment is for entertainment purposes only. Any similarity to real insight or information is purely coincidental.
    3. Re:Comment from said "hacker" by The+Clockwork+Troll · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is an interesting legal situation in that, technically, both the crime and its punishment could be called a "salami attack".

      --

      There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
    4. Re:Comment from said "hacker" by 0kComputer · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have a client in there right now. He says the trick is to kick someone's ass the first day, or become someone's bitch.

      --
      Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
      10.
    5. Re:Comment from said "hacker" by Ibiwan · · Score: 5, Funny

      " And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly 'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing, father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the bench. "

      --
      -- //no comment
    6. Re:Comment from said "hacker" by Chapter80 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      With every ATM deposit, one can key in a slight over-amount, when specifying the deposit. If you are depositing checks for $123.45, you could key in maybe $123.54 (transposing the last two digits).

      Most always, the bank sees the foolishness in sending a letter (costing at least 42 cents) to correct a small error. So they apparently just write off the difference, and leave the ATM deposit as reported.

      So I get richer, cents at a time.

      Kids, don't try this at home.

      This may just be the missing statement, right before "4. Profit"

  2. PC load letter?! by jchillerup · · Score: 5, Funny

    What the fuck does that mean?!

    1. Re:PC load letter?! by jchillerup · · Score: 5, Funny

      Whew. Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays.

  3. Superman 3? by jandrese · · Score: 5, Informative

    How is this like Superman 3? I thought the point in that movie was to shave off the remainders in interest calculations. This is just a simple case of seeing someone transfer a few cents to your account when you open it and trying to abuse the system. The problem of course is that it's extremely obvious and you'll get caught, just like this guy did.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
    1. Re:Superman 3? by owlnation · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, but I'm sure someone can still claim PRYOR art.

  4. Well, yeah... by Oxy+the+moron · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He was arrested not for taking the money, but for using false names in order to get it.

    Of course he wasn't arrested for taking the money. Said institutions willingly deposited that money into his account(s), yes? And these institutions did so under the pretense that this was to identify the customer? So the charge makes sense. The guy didn't steal money, it was given to him... a "him" with a fake identity.

    --

    Proudly supporting the Libertarian Party.

  5. Well it is true.... by cortesoft · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

  6. Whatever you do.... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't drop the kryptonite in the shower.

  7. oh wait.... by apodyopsis · · Score: 5, Funny

    At least he did not create a script that automatically rounded every payment up to the nearest... oh wait...

    Even if he gets a fine, he can always apply to pay off the debt in small payments - say a few cents every time...

    Reminds me of a debt my father picked up from a school my sister attended for less then a week. They charged him for a whole year. Not to be deterred he promptly paid them half the amount they invoiced him for. Months later and six angry letters later he paid them half of the sum they asked for. Months later.. ah well, I am sure you can see the pattern here. Fast forward 14 years and they finally wrote of the rest of his debt (I think 1GPB) as a good will gesture (and I am reliably informed he is legend in the schools finance department). I have no idea how much the administration cost to school at the end of it, but it all seemed good natured enough.

    1. Re:oh wait.... by ZERO1ZERO · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, i'm an idiot.

  8. $50,000? by PawNtheSandman · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know what I'd do with $50,000? 2 chicks at the same time.

    1. Re:$50,000? by gmuslera · · Score: 5, Funny

      In a few months, filling the gas tank would be another use for that amount of money. Is good that so many online services are willing to cooperate in that hard task.

    2. Re:$50,000? by Andreaskem · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why blow that much money on 2 minutes of entertainment?

  9. Re:He stole my idea! by norminator · · Score: 5, Funny

    But he only stole it a little bit, a whole bunch of times...

  10. How many bank accounts did he have? by __aailob1448 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't understand how he managed to do this. He can't use 50,000 bank accounts. There aren't 50,000 payment services. So why would any of them send a few cents to the same bank account more than once?

    Can anyone explain this to me? It makes no sense at all.

  11. I just wanted to add the damn quote already by ReverendLoki · · Score: 5, Funny

    Peter: "That virus you're always talking about, right? The one that could, uh, rip off the company for a bunch of money."
    Michael: "Yeah, what about it?"
    Peter: "Well, how does it work?"
    Michael: "It's pretty brilliant. What it does is, every time there's a bank transaction where interest is competed, you know, thousands a day, the computer ends up with these fractions of acent, which it usually rounds off. What this does is, it takes those little remainders and puts it into an account."
    Peter: "This sounds familiar."
    Michael: "Yeah, they did it in Superman III."
    Peter: "Right."
    Michael: "Yeah. Underrated movie, actually. And then there were a bunch of hackers, did it in the '70s as well. One of them got busted."
    Peter: "Well, so they check for this now."
    Michael: "No, here's the thing. Initech's so backed up with all the software we're updating for the year 2000, they'd never notice."
    Peter: "You're right. And even if they wanted to, they couldn't check all that code."
    Michael: "Thumbs up their asses. Thumbs up their asses."

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    1. Re:I just wanted to add the damn quote already by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 5, Funny

      Peter Gibbons: I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up "money laundering" in a dictionary.

      --
      "I only speak the truth"
      Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
  12. Re:Let's by tha_mink · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sign up for a gazillion Paypal accounts, use ONE bank account, and after Paypal deposits the money, withdraw the money and close the account. Tried it. Paypal doesn't allow multiple accounts with the same bank account information.
    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  13. Re:I've always wondered by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

    IANOC I am not on crack?
    --
    which is totally what she said
  14. "Hacker" not "Cracker"! by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In this case, he's a hacker using the Slashdot/ESR definition, instead of the typical everyday definition. People around here should be excited.

  15. Re:Well whaddaya know... by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> Salami Attack was a bad 80s porn movie...

    Yes, but it was better than Superman 3.