Off Beat: Hacker Made Vacancies in Hotel Guests' Accounts

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via The Miami Herald.

[snip]

With a willing ex-wife as his partner in crime, a Colombian engineer's
clever scheme to steal thousands of dollars from unsuspecting travelers
worldwide went undetected for years.

Then Mario Alberto Simbaqueba Bonilla's high-tech computer crime spree
accidentally attracted the attention of the Pentagon.

In spring 2006, Defense Department officials discovered someone had hacked
into the personal financial accounts of 17 U.S. soldiers and fleeced their
payroll deposits along with mortgage, car, and other payments.
Investigators tracked the trail of electronic evidence to Simbaqueba.

On Wednesday, Simbaqueba, 40, pleaded guilty in Miami federal court to
tapping into hotel business-center computers here and in other cities to
swipe personal financial information from hundreds of travelers to pay for
his lavish international lifestyle. Simbaqueba stayed in first-class hotels
in places such as Hong Kong, Italy and Dubai, and bought expensive
electronics, jewelry and clothing for himself and his many girlfriends.

The Defense Department employees were among more than 600 people -- mostly
business travelers and college students -- whose identities were found on
Simbaqueba's laptop computer, seized upon his arrest last August at Miami
International Airport. His total take: between $400,000 and $750,000,
prosecutors say.

Dozens of companies, including Chase Manhattan Bank, E*Trade, and American
Airlines, ended up covering most of the victims' financial losses.

[snip]

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/373544.html

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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