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21 Million German Bank Accounts For Sale

anerva writes "Black market criminals are offering to sell details on 21 million German bank accounts for €12M ($15.3M), according to an investigative report (German; Google translation) published Saturday. In November reporters for WirtschaftsWoche (Economic Week) had a face-to-face meeting with criminals in a Hamburg hotel, according to the magazine. Posing as buyers working for a gambling business, the journalists were able to strike a price of €0.55 per record, or €12M for all the data. They were given a CD containing the 1.2 million accounts when they asked for assurances that the information they would be buying was legitimate." 21 million is three in four existing German bank accounts.

23 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. How to pay... by LingNoi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Couldn't you just buy one to begin with and then use that German bank account to buy the rest?

    1. Re:How to pay... by Ihmhi · · Score: 5, Funny

      And then we can beat the crap out of the office printer and dance to rap music!

  2. Re:Hmmm... by LingNoi · · Score: 4, Funny

    The police are too busy raiding game developer buildings with shotguns and listening in on Skype calls.

  3. Gotta love the germans by sleeponthemic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Even their criminality is impressively efficient :-)

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  4. Re:So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yah, ho hum. I mean, I bought my first 21 million German bank accounts YEARS AGO. Nothing to see here folks.

  5. Tomorrow's News by Bentov · · Score: 5, Funny

    This morning the entire banking system in Germany collapsed due to 3 in 4 Germans transferring money out of the country to banks in neighboring countries....

  6. ohshiza? by Stormie · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think the taggers in this story need to learn how to spell "Scheiße"

  7. Re:So what by henni16 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who wants a mass list anyway, you can't target spam at people just because they're German and they have a bank account, and stealing that many identities begs the question, "why?"

    Yeah, who could have use for the equivalent of 21 million valid direct debit cards.

  8. Who wants to bet... by emptycorp · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...they analyzed the bank accounts and the combined total in them is less than $1 million?

    1. Re:Who wants to bet... by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean there's less than 500 Euros in those 21 million accounts?

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  9. mmm... that means that ... by Jerry · · Score: 4, Funny

    the Linux desktop market share in Germany is only 25%.

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    Running with Linux for over 20 years!

  10. Re:So what by joocemann · · Score: 4, Funny

    lmao.

    buying bank accounts in bulk is soo..... 2007...

  11. Re:Tomorrow's News by John+Hasler · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...Such as Iceland?

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  12. Re:On your marks (no pun intended) by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Funny

    > In theory, if the banking system were known to be compromised in such a huge way, and
    > there were no way of knowing if your own bank account was compromised or not, shouldn't
    > there be a massive bank run?

    This is Germany. There will be no bank run until it is properly planned, organized, and regulated.

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  13. Re:So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nice combo-post there. You start with a subtle misunderstanding of the topic, move to a non-sequitur, then finish with a classic "begs the question" dismount.

  14. Hmm... by sootman · · Score: 5, Funny

    21 million is three in four existing German bank accounts.

    I have for sale EVERY VISA NUMBER EVER ISSUED! From 4000 0000 0000 0000 to 4999 9999 9999 9999! (Note: some numbers may not be valid.)

    I will sell them for US $1,000,000 MILLIONS US DOLLARS. Contact me via this website.

    Act now and I'll throw in every Master Card ever issued. (5000 0000 0000 0000 to 5999 9999 9999 9999) (Same disclaimer as above.) And no identity thief would be complete without a REAL SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER to go with it, eh? Guess what? That's right--I'VE GOT THEM ALL TOO! (001-01-0001 to 999-99-9999)

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  15. Re:This is scary. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Need an automatic screenshot taker? Try here. [16software.com]

    Is your PrntScrn key broken?

  16. Re:So what by scubamage · · Score: 4, Funny

    Plus, in Norway there were Vikings. And Vikings rank only slightly behind Pirates and Ninjas on the Cool-O-Meter (tm, patent pending).

  17. Re:Exactly by svunt · · Score: 4, Funny

    I manage a team of payment processing staff who do work for superannuation companies, local councils, payroll companies, etc, and we process around 17,000 cheques every evening, which is roughly three metric fucktons. We're one of nine offices in the country, one of many such companies, and I'm in Australia, which has a population of about eighty people, I think. There are lots of cheques, they're just not part of most slashdotters' lives.

  18. Re:So what by pisto_grih · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you talk to the Russians...

    So you could say, "In Soviet Russia, 21 million German bank accounts buy You!"

  19. Re:Steve Jackson Games raid? by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think he was talking about CryTek, that emo company that starts to whine and threatens to cut itself every time someone talks about violent videogames.

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  20. Re:So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What do you mean behind?
    Pirates took inspiration from Vikings. Actually, pirates is just a veak imitiation without a real hat

  21. Re:So what by jabithew · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Hi, me and my friends want to buy this aircraft carrier. Can we split the check evenly over 21 million debit cards?"

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