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CAPP -> CAPP -> Computer hacker took £185k from PayPal customers
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budnonymous


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Computer hacker took £185k from PayPal customers
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Computer hacker took £185k from PayPal customers


By rebecca sherdley

A PROFESSIONAL computer hacker has been jailed after he stole more than £180,000 directly from eBay customers.

Richard Kirk, who lives with his mum in Sherwood, attacked 303 accounts after he cracked users' passwords.

The 22-year-old was able to then access his victim's PayPal accounts, which allow people to pay for goods bought online.

He transferred money from the PayPal accounts into his own, and then used the stolen cash to buy items for himself.

He spent £143,000 on valuable goods, including gold bars.

Kirk, from Bradmore Rise, was caught when one account holder got suspicious and contacted police.

Nottingham Crown Court heard officers set up an operation outside Kirk's house as he took delivery of two bars of gold bullion.

After the postman left, Kirk was arrested with his laptop on his knee, surrounded by parcels.

"Richard Kirk is a professional eBay and PayPal hacker," said Martin Hurst, prosecuting. "What this man has been doing is attacking other peoples' accounts and stealing their money on a daily basis."

Kirk pleaded guilty to five charges of fraud, four of theft and one relating to the use of an Acer laptop during the frauds.

Judge Ebrahim Mooncey sent him to prison for three-and-a-half years.

And he told Kirk: "A lot of effort was put in by you over a long period of time in order to conduct the fraud you did."






--------------------------

ahem...
No actual password cracking is needed to take over a paypal account.
(... so I hear...  ;)))
lmao!!!


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Exposing the sleazery of ebaY and PayPal

 
budnonymous


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Hacker court case exposes weaknesses of PayPal system

28 February 2011

THE case of a hacker who stole more than £180,000 from eBay users has highlighted weaknesses in PayPals procedures.

At Nottingham Crown Court on February 18, Richard Kirk, 22, was jailed for three and a half years after pleading guilty to a prolonged fraud and theft committed over two years between 2008 and 2010.

Kirk had demonstrated considerable skill at guessing users' answers to elementary security questions to access email accounts.

By claiming to have forgotten the password, he would, by trial and error, answer a sequence of questions such as the favourite colour, the year of birth or the make of car driven by the account holder in order to gain access to their accounts.

The court heard people often used exactly the same password on their PayPal accounts as they used on their eBay accounts. This gave Kirk a way in to immediately spend their money.

Because Kirk would ask for merchandise purchased on eBay to be sent to his home address in Sherwood, those victims who quickly realised their accounts had been hacked into could not get their money back when they alerted PayPal.

Detective Constable Dave Prest explained: "PayPal has the power to reverse the payment when the original person's account was hacked into. But where it is sent to a different address, to an unverified address from the one on the website, then PayPal does not reimburse customers."

Martin Elwick, in mitigation, said: "What is a remarkable feature of the fraud is that he uses his home address for the delivery of every single item. It beggars belief PayPal never brought it to an end years ago they can trace each transaction to his home address."



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Exposing the sleazery of ebaY and PayPal

 
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