Cyber Hits

[Momo8]

I'm sure most people have been approached by weird "Nigerian Scam" letters at some point but here is a new twist on the game.I'm wondering if this can actually happen,that someone can hack into your computer and set you up.

This article is from "The Bulletin" .....

Cyber hits

Friday, July 6, 2007Even contract killers are doing business online these days.The internet has revolutionised most areas of life, so why not contract killing? There was a time when you could say what you liked about gangland villains in columns like these safe in the knowledge that they could not switch a computer on, let alone track down your site.

Now Bluestone gets a regular stream of emails from various correspondents swearing vengeance and retribution for various outrages, usually because their names have been misspelt or a murder victim or two added or subtracted. People often ask me whether it's dangerous to write about criminals and my stock answer is only if you leave them out. Such is the cult of celebrity in true crime. You know things are getting surreal when a villain suspected of involvement in three murders rings in high dudgeon to complain that they haven't had a chance to meet with the actor playing them in an upcoming mini-series. 'I don't wanna be portrayed as some loud-mouthed, nasty vicious killer," he whined, forgetting that was precisely what he was. Personally, I was disappointed that the producers of the Nine Network's upcoming mini-series on Melbourne crime cast some thin pasty no-name lad to play Carl Williams.

Anyway back to the cyber killing business. A contact of Bluestone called me with disturbing news that someone was plotting to kill him. The killer, using the address [email protected] wrote that unless $30,000 was deposited into an offshore account he would kill my contact forthwith. If he did pay the money, the killer would reveal the identity of the paymaster, sending a video tape. If he didn't pay, the killer would still pick up $50,000 for knocking him. He advised my contact to stay indoors because he was watching his movements.

However, it was not a convenient moment to be killed for my contact who wrote back:

" Dear Mr No-name,

I have received your note and at this stage, I thank you for alerting me to your job and not arranging for me to be killed as I am dealing with other immediate problems and didn't want to be killed before i dealt with them.

I am glad you have spared me for the moment .. i have taken your advice and i am inside all the time and I have not told the police who don't like me anyway please, please get back to me ...as the money is in my uncle's account ready to be sent to where i tell him no questions asked ..i have not taken it out in cash as the authorities as well as your people are watching me so if they do come and get me without your say so I will die knowing they did not get a cent for their troubles ...again thanks for my life.

A response was quickly forthcoming. " Listen, go now and send the money to this account below and get back to me with the scanned copy of the payment slip, this is the only grace you can have for now and you will pay the balance of the money in three weeks as you said. After the payment has been confirmed by our ofice in spain I will send the tape to you and tell you all the information of my client.

Keep this for your self because any mistake from you, you will not live to tell the story.

GO NOW AND MAKE THE PAYMENT TO THIS ACCOUNT.

BANK NAME: BANCAJA

ACCOUNT NUMBER: ES 6920770843111600422958

SWIFT CODE:cvalesvvxxx.

BANK ADDRESS: CARRETERA BOADILLA, 2 MAJADAHONDA, 28220, MADRID.

BENEFICIARY NAME: JOAIN MARTINS

I WANT TO HELP YOU IF ONLY YOU WANT TO HELP YOUR SELF SO GO NOW FOR YOU HAVE NO MUCH TIME.

Surely this was a new version of the Nigerian letters scam, not a serious attempt to kill him, he thought. So he ignored his new pen pal, who soon got impatient.

>

Subject: WHERE IS THE PAYMENT SLIP?

Have you sent the money to the account as I told you because the report about you here show that you have not done the transfer.

Listen, you are playing game with your life and the life of your love ones. GET BACK TO ME WITH THE SCANNED COPY OF THE PAYMENT SLIP NOW OR I WILL ORDER MY BOYS TO GET YOU KILLED NOW.

YOU HAVE ONLY 24HOURS TO DO THIS OR ....................R.I.P

Add some color. Personalize your inbox with your favorite colors. Try it!

(Not sure, if the "add some color" bit was actually part of the message, but I am sure you will agree that even contract killers should say it with colour.)

My contact was going to laugh all this off, until we searched out the IP address of the sender. In a chilling discovery the IP address was the same as my contact's. The killer, probably sitting in a car outside in the street, had hacked into my contact's wireless internet router. This was getting personal now.

Dear Mr No Name

I DONT HAVE ANY LOVED ONES COCKROACH

> THEY ARE ALL DEAD

> I HAVE BEEN TO JAIL IN AFRICA I HAVE BEEN STABBED 5 TIMES SHOT 3. I TAKE 8 PILLS A DAY

> I WAS GOING TO GIVE YOU MONEY ONLY BECAUSE I WANTED TO FIND OUT

> WHO ENGAGED YOU NOW I DONT GIVE A <deleted> FOR YOU OR HIM

> YOU **** SUCKING CAR THIEF

> FIND THE CAR THEN AND KEEP IT THEN I WILL FIND YOU

>

> IF BY ANY CHANCE I DIE THEN YOU WILL FOLLOW SOON AFTER SO AGAIN I

> REPEAT YOU WILL GET NO MONEY

>

> AND FOR STEALING MY CAR ONLY GRIEF

>

> SO DONT BE SORRY YOU WEAK GERM

(He threw in the fictitious car theft bit for a little distraction)

This business was getting complicated now for the cyber hit squad.

WE ARE NOT WITH YOUR CAR WITH THE STREET IS OURS AND WE CAN FIND YOUR CAR IF WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS TRUE.

YOU ARE PLAYING WITH FIRE AND YOU DO NOT KNOW. I PITY YOUR LOVED ONES BECAUSE THEY ALL WILL SEE hel_l ON EARTH.

I CAN ONLY GIVE YOU A GRACE OF 24HOUR AS I TOLD YOU TO MAKE THE PAYMENT OR YOU CAN LOOK AROUND AND SEE WHATS UP.

Two days passed and my man was still alive.

He was in the supermarket late one night when he noticed two very tall, very black Somalis were shadowing him. Everywhere he went there they were a few steps behind him, when he stopped they did too. When he turned, they would nonchalantly pick up a product and pretend to be ordinary shoppers. My contact quickly doubled back round them, via the kitchenware department. Before they knew it, he was behind them, holding a very large kitchen knife to the neck of one of the Somalis. Terrified, they confessed they had been paid in cash by a stranger to follow him, not to kill him, just to unnerve him. They were spared to continue their window shopping.

At this point Bluestone suggested that perhaps the police were best able to handle this matter. My contact reluctantly agreed despite enjoying the feisty correspondence. Using the two bank accounts supplied, police have begun to round a number of suspects and apparently plan to charge them with various offences under terrorism laws relating to the use of bank accounts for illegal purposes. The would-be hitman gave up interest in his contract then, sending one more mail saying that my contact had been "ungrateful" for his help in saving his life.

Now readers feel free to email Mr No Name as he may still be looking for some alternative work. Don't be shy, but do watch for Somalis in the supermarket.

The Bulletin — Australia's most respected news and current affairs magazine for 126 years.

[OxfordWill]

That's not what happened here - nobody hacked into anywhere, or at least, if they did hack into his wireless network it was completely unnecessary. They could spoof his IP from anywhere in the world.

Edited July 8, 2007 by OxfordWill