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1990 NEWSLETTER PART TWO
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S.H.A. AND I.H.A. PRESENTS
1990 NEWSLETTER PART TWO
JANUARY - FEBRUARY
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE CHIEF
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THIS NEWSLETTER CONTAINS PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ONLY AND SERVES
AS INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE HACKER SOCIETY.
ALL MATERIAL COMES FROM CONTRIBUTORS TO THE NEWSLETTER BY
THE PUBLIC. S.H.A. AND I.H.A. TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR
ARTICLES AND MATERIAL IN THIS FILE. THIS IS NOT MENT TO
BE ENCOURAGING ANY ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES.
-ED
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ABOUT THE BUST OF THE VISA-FRAUD GUYS PART II
---------------------------------------------
Some young Swedish "Computer-pirates" use of creditcard-numbers have
pushed the creditcard-companies to change all their cards.
The nine youngsters, who have ordered stereos and computer for at least
100000 Swedish Crowns ($ 15000), are going to trial later this month
(Feb.). The program which counts the creditcard-numbers exists all over
the underground "hacker-market" today.
Within Two years, all of the VISA-cards will have a new and improved
security number-system. "It takes time to change all of our 300 million
cards", says Lars Piehl at the Swedish Visa office.
Thousends of VISA-card owners have been affected by the young hackers.
With a credit check-list and some mathematics the computer-freaks managed
to count the way the creditcard-companies do when they make the numbers.
Then they made the program to do the job for them. With the numbers they
ordered computers, stereor and made "free" calls to the US of A. The
Police thinks that this is just the beginning in this case. There must
be several other hackers who uses creditcard-numbers and such things in
this country. These nine youngsters are just a drop in the ocean.
"Over 1000 have been affected by the VISA-fraud, but then there is
MasterCard, Eurocard, American Express and Diners Club", says the manager
at VISA-Sweden. The creditcard-companies have a VERY simple way of
making account-numbers to creditcard-numbers. The formula is so simple
that the newspaper-journalists who wrote this understood it easily.
(Tomas Dilln and Per Lapins). An Expert at the Swedish FBI (SPO),
admits that the program really work, and that that part is classified
information.
The program is spread today, and the journalists says "We have easily
found the program for The Commodore 64 , IBM and Macintosh". In the
net of computers around the world today for hackers, the program will
spread very quickly." Although the companies have said that they are
going to make a new, more secure number-system, thay haven't made any
attempts to do so yet.
The cards have generally a lifetime for 2 years, but within two years
the cards will have a new number-system. Those who have recieved phone-
bills for calls they have never made and bills for computers they have
never ordered haven't got much attention from the creditcard-companies.
They have kept a lid on it, and haven't said much about the hackers to
their customers.
"-No, I thought that there had been some mistake and someone else had
the same creditcard-number as me", a customer said. "MasterCard haven't
said anything about it", said another. This customer had closed his
account with MasterCard, but the hackers "hacked" it out.
Cretitcard-frauds are still reported so there is nothing to indicate a
fall due to the busts.
"Did you wonder about why that unemployed bloke down your street have
got the money to buy a 64Mb Harddisk and a own Board?". That is the be-
ginning text of a file describing creditcard-fraud found at the board
"Interpol" in Stockholm. It is written in English and even contain war-
nings of named American companies and how you use false adresses where
the stuff will be sent for collection.
"-We know that the buissness is still going on", says the chief of the
Swedish Police, Roland Sthl, one of the policemen who has been working
with computer-crimes. Those who are affected and haven't seen the errors
on their bills, have paid for the hackers without knowledge. An example
on this is one card-owner who have paid 9000 Swedish crowns for three
stereos a hacker had ordered. VISA knew about this but haven't tracked
down the one who paid, although this was requested by the police.
"If we should go through all transactions, it would take several weeks
and isn't worth it right now, and in this case, said the security-chief
at VISA-London to the Swedish Police.
The creditcard-affairs have changed from beeing something that you
paid with AT the shop to a telecommunication-shopping counterpart.
The buyer gives the company his/her adress and cardnumber + expiration
date and then the stuff comes right to the adress the company got from
the customer. There is no checking that it IS the one who calls and
orders the stuff, who lives at the adress given by the caller. It doesn't
exist in the company computers. Outside Sweden, buying with creditcards
on the phone is very common and it leaves the field open for fraud.
It is with foreign companies the Swedish hackers have made their orders.
Another attraction is to make "free" telephone-calls on creditcards.
The American Telecom have stated their loss to be as high as 500 Million
Swedish crowns each year on fraud.
The Swedish hackers haven't been such criminals. They have used their
own ID's when they picked the stuff up at the post offices. In one case
one of the hackers put his birthnumber on customs-papers. Those times
when they didn't collect the stuff, they couldn't pay the import-fee
and the Swedish moms (vat). They hadn't got the money even for that.
"It began as a game", says the attorney Hans G:son Wikmark, one of the
defenders in the case against the nine youngsters. "They were just trying
to see if their tricks worked." "If you hit someone on the street, you
can see the pain in the face on the person you've hit. Now you sit in-
front of your computer-screen and perhaps doesn't realise what it means."
Chief of VISA, Lars Piehl, is eager to state how small the card-fraud
really is today. "Losses because of criminal elements takes about 0.1%
of the total transactions made." Worldwide transactions made by the large
creditcard-companies comes up to 3800 Billion Swedish Crowns.
$ 1.00 = 6.33 Swedish Crowns. In $:s it would be 3800 000 000 000 x 6.33.
That leave the criminal fraud 3.8 Billion Swedish Crowns.... YEARLY!
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(c) By Swedish Hackers Association 1990
(c) By International Hackers Association 1990
