Phone card scam hits TA Orange

[george]

Phone card scam hits TA Orange

Pre-paid values jacked up by gang of hackers

BANGKOK POST: -- Police are hunting accomplices of a gang of hackers who allegedly managed to get into the information system of mobile phone operator TA Orange Co, allowing them to increase the value of pre-paid phone cards and costing the company 200 million baht in lost revenue.

A source at the Metropolitan Police Bureau said police arrested four men in Bangkok on Wednesday on charges of hatching the fraud scheme.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Lumpini police station and those specially assigned by deputy police chief Pol Gen Noppadol Somboonsap are hunting for the accomplices.

Police are also tracing the phone cards, the increased value of which amounts to tens of millions of baht.

The source said TA Orange had told the Royal Thai Police Office that the PC-based hacking operation cost it more than 200 million baht as 500-baht pre-paid cards were revalued at 10,000 baht each and cards with 1,000-baht tags were reprogrammed for a value of up to 15,000 baht each.

Clients, for example, paid the gang 5,000 baht for a 10,000-baht valuation.

Detectives from the Lumpini police station and those assigned by Pol Gen Noppadol, joined by computer experts, traced the four suspects and seized from them a dozen bank books that indicated deposits of tens of millions of baht.

The police source said the case was a major economic crime as the suspects were computer experts and might have conspired with TA Orange employees to hack into the company's computer system.

TA Orange director Athueck Asvanont, who is also vice-chairman of True Corporation, its parent company, said TA Orange staff had spotted the irregularity a while ago and had just managed to reach the four suspects who were outsiders.

According to Mr Athueck, the gang offered their "value-adding" service on TA Orange pre-paid phone cards in internet chat rooms. They offered to revalue clients' SIM cards where, for example, a client paid 10 baht but his SIM card would be revalued at 100 baht or more.

Clients had to bring their pre-paid TA Orange cards to the suspects, who would read the cards' codes and hack into TA Orange to increase the value of the cards.

The company is trying to block the illegally-valued cards. As a result, the holders of such SIM cards are unable to use the cards beyond their original value.

The company's action, however, has created disputes between the company and its clients and the irregularity has been discussed on the net.

"When the cheap value-adding service was offered and clients could not use their phones beyond the original value, complaints were posted on the net and we were able to spot the irregularity," Mr Athueck said.

The 200-million-baht damage estimate was based on the phone card values that the gang had manipulated. One card had been revalued to as much as 100 million baht, he said.

However, that was not the damage amount actually incurred by the company, Mr Athueck said. The actual damage was the company's loss of income opportunities.

"This can happen to any company. Investigations and arrests are gradually carried out and most complaints and arrests happen quietly," he said.

Vichai Bencharongkul, co-chief executive officer of the DTAC mobile phone system, said mobile phone companies normally have a "revenue assurance and fraud detection" system that ensures pre-paid cards are encoded only once.

There was also a system that could detect unusual value additions in pre-paid cards, he said.

"Our company has experienced such an irregularity but the volume is small. And the damage is not actual because the value addition to the cards only comes out of [network] airtime.

"The damage is considered as a loss of income opportunity as a network has its fixed costs," Mr Vichai said.

However, he said actual damage could happen if clients made a lot of international calls or contacted content providers, because these kind of communications required mobile phone operators to pay third parties.

--Bangkok Post 2005-08-27

[andyfletch]

Phone card scam hits TA Orange

Pre-paid values jacked up by gang of hackers

BANGKOK POST: -- Police are hunting accomplices of a gang of hackers who allegedly managed to get into the information system of mobile phone operator TA Orange Co, allowing them to increase the value of pre-paid phone cards and costing the company 200 million baht in lost revenue.

A source at the Metropolitan Police Bureau said police arrested four men in Bangkok on Wednesday on charges of hatching the fraud scheme.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Lumpini police station and those specially assigned by deputy police chief Pol Gen Noppadol Somboonsap are hunting for the accomplices.

Police are also tracing the phone cards, the increased value of which amounts to tens of millions of baht.

The source said TA Orange had told the Royal Thai Police Office that the PC-based hacking operation cost it more than 200 million baht as 500-baht pre-paid cards were revalued at 10,000 baht each and cards with 1,000-baht tags were reprogrammed for a value of up to 15,000 baht each.

Clients, for example, paid the gang 5,000 baht for a 10,000-baht valuation.

Detectives from the Lumpini police station and those assigned by Pol Gen Noppadol, joined by computer experts, traced the four suspects and seized from them a dozen bank books that indicated deposits of tens of millions of baht.

The police source said the case was a major economic crime as the suspects were computer experts and might have conspired with TA Orange employees to hack into the company's computer system.

TA Orange director Athueck Asvanont, who is also vice-chairman of True Corporation, its parent company, said TA Orange staff had spotted the irregularity a while ago and had just managed to reach the four suspects who were outsiders.

According to Mr Athueck, the gang offered their "value-adding" service on TA Orange pre-paid phone cards in internet chat rooms. They offered to revalue clients' SIM cards where, for example, a client paid 10 baht but his SIM card would be revalued at 100 baht or more.

Clients had to bring their pre-paid TA Orange cards to the suspects, who would read the cards' codes and hack into TA Orange to increase the value of the cards.

The company is trying to block the illegally-valued cards. As a result, the holders of such SIM cards are unable to use the cards beyond their original value.

The company's action, however, has created disputes between the company and its clients and the irregularity has been discussed on the net.

"When the cheap value-adding service was offered and clients could not use their phones beyond the original value, complaints were posted on the net and we were able to spot the irregularity," Mr Athueck said.

The 200-million-baht damage estimate was based on the phone card values that the gang had manipulated. One card had been revalued to as much as 100 million baht, he said.

However, that was not the damage amount actually incurred by the company, Mr Athueck said. The actual damage was the company's loss of income opportunities.

"This can happen to any company. Investigations and arrests are gradually carried out and most complaints and arrests happen quietly," he said.

Vichai Bencharongkul, co-chief executive officer of the DTAC mobile phone system, said mobile phone companies normally have a "revenue assurance and fraud detection" system that ensures pre-paid cards are encoded only once.

There was also a system that could detect unusual value additions in pre-paid cards, he said.

"Our company has experienced such an irregularity but the volume is small. And the damage is not actual because the value addition to the cards only comes out of [network] airtime.

"The damage is considered as a loss of income opportunity as a network has its fixed costs," Mr Vichai said.

However, he said actual damage could happen if clients made a lot of international calls or contacted content providers, because these kind of communications required mobile phone operators to pay third parties.

--Bangkok Post 2005-08-27

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They're lucky to get the original value of the cards!!. Complaining that they can't use the ILLEGALLY OBTAINED credit really is stupid.

Orange should have just cancelled the cards completely.........................

[Highwayman]

One card had been revalued to as much as 100 million baht, he said.

[VanZam]

One card had been revalued to as much as 100 million baht, he said.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

2 million USD prepay top up.... that has to be some sort of reccord

[atulmangalmurti]

new mafia in bangkok. surprised no comments fron AIS.

[ednguyen]

Couldn't happen to a nicer group of bums and rip-off artistes - Orange & True, da chicken people.

Edited August 27, 2005 by ednguyen

[francois]

hi'

555555

except the name they called them .. CRACKERS not hackers, please

it reminds me the exploit made un USA by the Captain, when so many Americans could phone in the day at night cost

but this was done for free and for the fun more than any other reason.

those guys are gansters, doing things for money only!

and this is why they are called crackers, they want to get something from what they crack.

a hacker seeks knowledge only, and a lot of them are now hired by some top companies for security.

this kind of stupid stuff disgusts me, and those who used the cards(knowing about) are to be put in the same bag!

francois

[kwiz118]

Just 3 months more to close books.

This is normal in Asia.

Fire, theft and these days hacking.

[Puma]

I open an Orange number on a prepaid basis (1000 baths) two years ago in Pattaya, after tow weeks holyday I went back to my village in the north Thailand and the telephone-number hade no connection to the net! And the money I hade prepaid was not valid after one month. When I come back to Pattaya I went to Orange and ask how I could get the money back and the only way was to top up the balance and lose more money!

I took the loss (about 900 baht) because I wouldn’t bet on the wrong hours tow times (name: TA OLRANGE)

So I think Orange still is in positive figures in this cheating business!!!!

PS Spelling and grammar check completed DS

[coldcrush]

I think this is a good challenge against corporate giants. The (crackers) hackers have took a golden opportunity to display underworld freedom of price! Classic! It is like the one where you recieve a text and when opened your number is then used to make international calls from someones phone! Google it, its was unique to Thailand. I love Thai intuition, genuis. However not clever enough not to get caught!

Edited August 27, 2005 by lopburiguy

[Johpa]

From my experience with Orange staff, many of them do business under the table, which no doubt is undermining company results..

Perhaps this company is being run by those who took an advanced business course from the Thai State Lottery system.

[george]

Update:

New AIS digits target hackers

BANGKOK: -- Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country's largest mobile-phone operator, will soon introduce a 16-digit code for its prepaid phone cards, replacing the current 13-digit system in a bid to make it more difficult for computer hackers to change the value of its cards.

Another operator, TA Orange, earlier reported to police that hackers had broken into its computer network and changed the value of its prepaid cards, resulting in a Bt200-million revenue loss.

Police are reported to have arrested four accomplices in the TA Orange fraud on Wednesday.

Wichien Methakarn, executive vice president of AIS, said his company's network was highly secure with firewalls to prevent unscrupulous persons from breaking in, but some have tried to change the 13-digit cards' value by manipulating the last two digits.

"Now, we've switched to random numbers on the last two digits to make it harder for hackers to guess, and soon we'll switch to 16-digit cards to make it even more difficult to manipulate," said Wichien. Thana Tienachariya of DTAC, another mobile-phone operator, said the company had a security system that prevents hackers from changing the value of its prepaid cards.

An estimated 50 million prepaid phone cards are in service with a value of Bt300 on average for a total of 24 million phone numbers.

Apart from TA Orange, the local mobile-phone industry has faced only small-scale fraud, costing operators an average revenue loss of only a few hundred thousand baht each time.

--The Nation 2005-08-28

[Darkling]

One card had been revalued to as much as 100 million baht, he said.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One girl in Pattaya claims she needed this much credit as she had four husbands in differrent parts of europe.

[ovenman]

One card had been revalued to as much as 100 million baht, he said.

I'm surprised that was allowed to happen. Any prepaid system I have ever used had a maximum amount of value allowed on a number at any given time, and that value was certainly not the equivalent of 100 million baht!

[Thanh-BKK]

Someone got to suffer - and i bet it happens on AIS as well. i for once bought a sealed 1-2-call topup card at a seven-eleven and when i tried to topup i got the message that that number "had been used already". Seven-eleven replaced it with a new one without any hassle, since i didn't leave the shop while trying to top up, but if i had gone home for sure they would have accused me of cheating.

100 Million Baht for a single topup? I don't believe that, fullstop. It's an excuse for the pumped-up "estimate" of 200 Million, to get it down to size - "yeah, we had one with 100 Million and a lot small ones for combined another 100 Million" - sounds more realistic, right?

on a sideline - these pre-paids are a rip-off anyway. You need to topup large amounts to get reasonable time allowance - at least 300 Baht for 30 days. With the cut-throat promotion of 25 satang per minute, that makes 1.200 minutes - 20 hours - of airtime. I don't know anyone using that many, so in the end of the 30 days, the company gets the rest of the deposit without delievering additional minutes. To get hands on it, you need to topup more - and at some stage end up like myself right now, with a 1-2-call that's about to expire next week with almost 2.000 Baht credit. Ijust don't use it often enough as it was meant as a backup, should my Hutch fail me!

(Hutch had a "time-topup" when they started their prepaid service - you could chose for a 100 Baht between 100 Baht credits plus ten days time, 50 Baht credit plus 20 days or no credits but 30 days time. That has been scrapped since for the obvious reasons).

Regards....

Thanh

[Thug]

Thank God I chose AIS. Needed to settle down to one number and just keep it.

:-D

[astral]

Sounds like an inside job to me!!