A computer whizz-kid was jailed today after trying to bring new bank card scamming technology into Britain.

German Thomas Beeckmann, 26, was stopped in June at Victoria coach station having just arrived from Holland.

Police found 17 electronic circuits capable of stealing £150million a year from chip and pin machines in shops and restaurants.

Caroline Haughey, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey three of the devices had already been adapted to be used with Bluetooth.

For the first time crooks would have been able to get banking details automatically as cards were fed into ATMs at banks or when purchases were made from stores.

The crook would receive the details on to his laptop or mobile phone up to 100 metres away, she said.

Beeckmann was thought to have been on his way to demonstrate the technology to potential buyers in the UK.

But he had refused to give investigators the password for his encrypted laptop which prevented them finding further evidence to charge him with more serious offences.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049182/Thomas-Beeckmann-jailed-caught-hi-tech-cashcard-scamming-kit.html#ixzz1ammmGFBt

Beeckmann, from Nakowatachema, Thailand, had adapted his circuits for use in shops. 'One could easily achieve £25,000 a day. The figures could be astronomical,' she said.

The 26-year-old, a software expert living in Thailand, pleaded guilty to having the 17 circuits for use in fraud and failure to disclose his password.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049182/Thomas-Beeckmann-jailed-caught-hi-tech-cashcard-scamming-kit.html#ixzz1ammymHUv

ment to post in genral - can the mods move please

ment to post in genral - can the mods move please

James gets his posts moved much quicker mate...

But he had refused to give investigators the password for his encrypted laptop which prevented them finding further evidence to charge him with more serious offences.

Burnside with his head down the toilet.....or surely someone can unlock it? Summon the Apple guys in to sort it out <deleted>. What a joke.

Anyone who has been robbed this way (as I have) would love to see stiffer sentences for this type of crime. Its no different than robbing your house!

ment to post in genral - can the mods move please

James gets his posts moved much quicker mate...

But he had refused to give investigators the password for his encrypted laptop which prevented them finding further evidence to charge him with more serious offences.

Burnside with his head down the toilet.....or surely someone can unlock it? Summon the Apple guys in to sort it out <deleted>. What a joke.

Anyone who has been robbed this way (as I have) would love to see stiffer sentences for this type of crime. Its no different than robbing your house!

very true, but i would rather see people who can crack systems like this , or do similar be employeed by these companies to prevent this kind of stuff and be paid for it, i remember a few companies in the past have offered this, but with banks, i suppose the fat cats only get to keep the money...

PS , nit saying what they do is right, but there talents should be used, as they are far more better then the curent people the company employees

PS - Why was he operating in thailand to begin with????

PC and Computer Minister take note

Thaialnd - The Hub of Cyber Criminal Intelligence

I just KNEW I shouldn't have loaned him my laptop. Those damned 16 year old kids anyway. All I wanted was for him to show me how to surf the net.

Seems more appropriate for the tech forum since its tech related and not specifically Thailand related.

Seems more appropriate for the tech forum since its tech related and not specifically Thailand related.

far enough, i would of thought the thais would be proud of this

Burnside with his head down the toilet.....or surely someone can unlock it? Summon the Apple guys in to sort it out <deleted>. What a joke.

Anyone who has been robbed this way (as I have) would love to see stiffer sentences for this type of crime. Its no different than robbing your house!

Something like True Crypt is near impossible to crack. Hardly a joke. All comes down to the strength of the encryption password. And only possible if the device is captured still on with the keys in memory.

Having your card skinmed is massively less distressing than coming home to a house turned upside down or even being in the house when it's attacked. You can't be serious when you compare the two?

Seems more appropriate for the tech forum since its tech related and not specifically Thailand related.

far enough, i would of thought the thais would be proud of this

Why on earth would they be proud of a German criminal living in Korat?

It's unclear how this would work - reading between the lines of that fine publication the daily mail, I think the only difference to stuff that's already out there is:

- Can be installed inside in-store card readers - however, that means that there's either an insider (risky!) or you'd have to break into the store and install the skimmer secretly. So it's not a slam dunk by any means.

- Bluetooth - that's only natural, all ATM skimmers are going to work that way. WiFi or Bluetooth based to get the data out.

They really need to come up with a standard way of physical design of ATMs such that attaching a skimmer would be obvious. I can think of other ways too, like a camera that films the card slot. If anything changes, it alerts a human operator who can then disable this ATM until the skimmer is removed. I think if you put minimal effort into it you could prevent most of the card skimmer scams.

I was at an ATM once where I later thought that thing was kind of fishy. So I went to another ATM and just changed my PIN number. Easy. It takes the scammers a while before they can use your information.

Is this a system that works only on credit/ATM card with embedded smart chips? My cards from the USA and Thailnd don't have those chips.

But if these 'whizkids' did accept a job with one of the companies they've been ripping off

they would probably have to go legit

and then they'd have to pay taxes on what they earn..

and where's the thrill in that ??

After all,their whole point seems to be flipping the bird at the powers that be.

ie.if it's illegal and you can get away with it..........'KEWL Dude '