SCORPIONS TO STING BANK FRAUD RING

Good Morning Bloggers - here's yesterday's post

Remind me again, why the Scorpions were shut down? Ah yes . . . . . I remember, it's because they caught the bad guys!

Scorpions to sting bank fraud ring
Louis Oelofse

25 October 2006 at 15h14

The Scorpions are investigating an international online banking fraud ring and have already arrested a South African in the case, it was revealed.

Login details stolen
Advocate Gerhard Nel of the Scorpions said the unit was going after the "big guys" in foreign countries, after a 28-year-old man was arrested two weeks ago for allegedly stealing login details of South African online banking customers.


"We do not want to give to much information about the case at the moment because we want to see if we can go after the main people," Nel said.

The South African was arrested at his home in Cape Town after joint operation between the Scorpions, the Standard Bank and a UK-based security consultancy.

The man, who is out on R20 000 bail but under house arrest, has been linked to at least 120 incidents of online fraud affecting most of South Africa's major banks. Several international banking customers were also affected.

Impacts all major local banks
Standard Bank security head Herman Singh confirmed that the arrest is the first of its kind involving a substantial amount of money and impacting all major South African banks.

"The type of attacks and modus operandi are totally new this case is far more sophisticated and organised. It was generic to all secure sites and the impact is only starting to be fully understood in the banking sector," he said.

It is thought the man used the spyware on vulnerable computers in internet cafes to capture details including card numbers and customer-selected PINs and passwords.

The details were then transmitted via a remote internet access device to a file server in Estonia, and were then retrieved by the alleged fraudster, who use them to log onto internet banking sites and make numerous electronic fund transfers and prepaid airtime purchases.

Anonymity of Internet cafes
Most of the affected internet cafes are in Johannesburg's northern suburbs and Pretoria, with isolated cases reported in Cape Town.

The first incidents were reported in May, and the modus operandi was established after investigation by Standard Bank computer experts.

When Scorpions officials swooped on the suspect, they found a laptop computer, three mobile phones and about 20 SIM cards at his premises, as well as R20 000 in cash

"Once again, this attack shows the importance of banking customers keeping their details secure, and preferably avoiding Internet Cafes as a place to do their online banking," said Singh. - Sapa