Boys Will Be Boys—And Fraudsters
Two eighteen year old “schoolboys” in the UK prove once again that there is no typical archetype when it comes to fraudsters. The Sun reported that two kids allegedly hacked 65,000 bank accounts worldwide, selling the pilfered account credentials via a website collecting over £8M—about $12M. The Sun reports that Nick Webber and Ryan Thomas “are thought to have met via a social networking site when they were 16.”
What’s most surprising to me about this crime by these alleged teen criminals isn’t their age, nor the large amounts of money mentioned. No, what surprises me is that more teens aren’t committing cybercrimes—or maybe they are and they’re getting away with it. I can easily imagine a teen asking himself: why schlep lattes at Starbucks for a few bucks when I can make thousands or millions committing web fraud? One good reason is obvious: web fraud is a crime, whereas cranking out espresso drinks at Starbucks is not.
How many Nick and Ryans are connecting on social networks right now putting their heads together for the next great web scam? More than we know about.
- Tom
Leave a Comment
This is good reading.
david