Spyware & Identity Theft

From This artical.
Hacker cleans out bank accounts

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A HACKER is targeting clients of South Africa's largest bank and has managed to steal hundreds of thousands of rand.
Police and bank officials say it appears the perpetrator used "spyware" to gain access to the personal computers of the victims, and, having found out their Internet banking information, had transferred money out of their accounts.

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One official said:

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Absa refused to refer to the culprit as a "hacker" and would only refer to the crime as "identity fraud" committed by a person who had gained access to clients' accounts through their own personal computers using the Internet.

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And the method:

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"It is a new trend called spyware. This has got nothing to do with the bank. It records keystrokes, like your account and PIN number, and then it e-mails the information to a Hotmail mailbox," he said.

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Spyware and keyloggers are a new trend?? Sounds more like some people are not following basic precautions.

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Peasy said it appeared the fraudster had sent unsuspecting clients an e-mail, which, when it was opened, installed software that recorded information.

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As in that old song--"When, When, Will they ever learn."

Looks like they are going to start thinking twice about opening any e-mail. I knew spyware was bad. but geeze using it for personal gain is never a good thing I am sure they will catch him.

yup they "hacked" our biggest bank -> ABSA.
I bet its some scriptkiddie who had a PLAN, he he .
well too bad

yup they "hacked" our biggest bank -> ABSA(www.absa.co.za).
I bet its some scriptkiddie who had a PLAN, he he .
well it done.

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Absa refused to refer to the culprit as a "hacker" and would only refer to the crime as "identity fraud" committed by a person who had gained access to clients' accounts through their own personal computers using the Internet.

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Damn straight. I am glad the media is finally slowing down on calling script kiddies hackers. Finally, little eight year old kids who just 'stole sub7 from a warez site' and used it to get some private information, whether it be bank account numbers or credit card numbers, are not hackers any more. Maybe soon the media will stop flaunting around wrongly defined terms and actually report things correctly. That would be the day. . . "Hey look! A flying pig!"

well here in SOUTH AFRICA everyone is talking bout the "hacker" this "hacker" that.
they dont even know wha a cracker is!!!!
for them everyone isw hackers!!!
damn

You guys are right, but it doesnt help that the script kiddies are albeling themselves as hackers. In a misunderstood world, those that are clueless point he fingers. I am niether of the two. I am a student here to learn whatever you can teach me. but i agree that script kiddies are giving the word "hack" an abused and selfrightiuos connotation.

Script kiddies do not label themselves as hackers, atleast not directly, they have a tendancy to label their actions as hacking due to media perception of their actions. The media has also done a wonderful job of labeling SKs as hackers, which unknowing to the "normal" citizen is not the case. The generalization of anything that goes against the flow is termed as "hacking".

There are millions of script kiddies in the world. Everyone has to start some where. Thats where I started and I have since evolved from there to the network security consultant and penetration tester that I am today. I know I started as a script kiddie and thats where I got my start. I learned how these programs really worked, and took it from there.

Just to let you guys know, I have Windows Longhorn v.4015 on an active ftp server if anyone wants to trade.

I was not rediculing the SKs, that would be like shooting myself in the foot ;) we have a saying "Know where you come from" I defintely do.

Yes, I hope all the 7337 hackers remember where they came from!