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Coordinated, Global ATM Heist Nets $13 Million
An anonymous reader writes "An international cybercrime gang stole $13 million from a Florida-based financial institution earlier this year, by executing a highly-coordinated heist in which thieves used ATMs around the globe to cash out stolen prepaid debit cards. 'Prepaid cards usually limit the amounts that cardholders can withdraw from a cash machine within a 24 hour period. Apparently, the crooks were able to drastically increase or eliminate the withdrawal limits for 22 prepaid cards that they had obtained. The fraudsters then cloned the prepaid cards, and distributed them to co-conspirators in several major cities across Europe, Russia and Ukraine.' The attack is eerily similar to the 2008 attack on RBS WorldPay that stole $9.4M. The men who pleaded guilty to the RBS attack were arrested and charged in Russia, but were later given only probation."
Like if an American kid were to hack China?
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Many banking systems only talk to each-other in nightly batches. It's mostly done that way because that's the way it's always been done, and to save money on entirely new systems. The every-24-hours style is less secure, slow, and inefficient. This is 2011 and there's no real excuse for it.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Yeah. I wouldn't go so far as to say they deserve it, since nobody really deserves to have stuff stolen from them, but if that's how they were set up, someone had to have know this would happen.
"The attack is eerily similar to the 2008 attack on RBS WorldPay that stole $9.4M. The men who pleaded guilty to the RBS attack were arrested and charged in Russia, but were later given only probation."
Would you try to steal $9.4M by nonviolent means if you knew that the penalty for being caught was probation? Be honest.
I know reading the article means I'm new and all, but it was based on both meatspace and cyber.
"Armed with unauthorized access to FISâ(TM)s card platform, the crooks were able to reload the cards remotely when the cash withdrawals brought their balances close to zero."
This was coordinated between people at the ATM and to someone on the FIS network reloading the cards.
That's why these attacks are coordinated across multiple cities. Pull as much money out as you can before the anomaly is investigated and stopped.
I would drop that bank...sounds like a bad bank if they can't even keep the digital balance up to date. My credit union is awesome.
I'm not the AC, but I too am in Columbus and have had dealings with Bank One.
They really are that bad.
I only used them for about a year (admittedly a little over 10 years ago) but had all the same problems with 23 hour delays on updating your online balance (As in on their website online balance!) ATM balances were fairly delayed too, though only a couple hours.
I had a similar problem as the anon GP. I was 17 and in college, just lost my crappy job at the local computer stores stock room not two weeks before classes started, and was basically only eating every three days or so due to lack of funds.
One day I decided screw it, I'll write a check for groceries and just deal with the check-bounce fee later once classes started back up and I had my student loan leftover money. Turns out Bank One didn't charge $60 per NSF like they say, it's $60 PER DAY until you bring your account positive.
That was the most expensive $40 grocery check I ever wrote, coming up to over $700.
I spent a few days trying to close my account out, which of course they wouldn't allow while it was negative so it could keep adding fees until it was enough to send to collections.
Ironically, they never did send me to collections. They called to bug me about it for a few months and eventually gave up and wrote it off. It's not on my credit report or anything.
I think they know such things are not legal and just try to scare people into paying for that crap.
Long story short, Bank One was horrible, and from what I hear is still almost as bad.
This brings up an interesting topic - why is it that banks don't/won't show a persistent record of the authorizations against credit/debit cards on your monthly statement? I can see the authorizations when they're active, but as soon as they time out, they're gone from my online statement and never show up anywhere else. It would certainly be nice to be able to easily reconcile authorizations against the actual charges without having to do a lot of extra record-keeping.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Goldman Sachs and the others just stole from the taxpayers.
have you seen the recent FOIA files released on the 'secret bailout'? billions and billions and billions. and a lot of it went to pay bonuses to those guys at the CDO and mortgage securities departments at those banks. massive, overwhelming fraud, completely unpunished. and we whine about hackers stealing 13 million from an ATM.
13 million would not even cover a year of a bailed-out bank CEO executive bonus. it wouldnt even be a drop in the bucket of the Boards of Directors payments (many of whom do exactly nothing). 13 million is what John Thain wiped his ass with at Merrill Lynch.
wake up folks. wake up. watch The Young Turks for more info