Korat: Cyber-thief steals 400,000 THB over the internet

[webfact]

Cyber – Thief Steals 400,000 THB Over The Internet



A cyber thief was able to steal 400,000 THB over the internet after he faked the account of an internet banking user.

NAKORN RATCHASIMA – August 5, 2013 [PDN]; 43 year-old Rungsan Janrungsi, the Vice President of the The National Press Council of Thailand went to complain with police officers and journalists regarding the theft of 400,000 THB from Thai Commercial Bank account. He said that an individual hacked or fake his internet banking account to gain access to his money.

Mr. Rungsan stated that the thief was able to steal 400,000 THB off his bank account with 40 minutes. He also said that the thief was able to get away smoothly with his money. The loophole that was in the internet banking system allowed him to log into his account and steal the money from his account.

Source: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/en/2013/08/08/cyber-thief-steals-400000-thb-over-the-internet/

-- Pattaya Daily News 2013-08-08

[DGS1244]

Guess he did not keep his passwords secure, I have been using it many years with no problem.

[wilgoster]

(One nice thing about Thai language - one doesn't encounter ambiguous personal pronouns at the rate the language here allows.)

Would be nice to know the prevalence of this kind of hacking - is it just a stolen password used too often, or was the password hacked also in the system. Is there no further security screen question that the account holder must answer after the password gate? I've not read that farangs have had similar issues.

[Hoedy Ho]

One account for daily transactions, ATM Card and e-banking. Nothing but small money in it, topped up monthly.

One account for keeping slightly larger amounts as they accumulate. No ATM, no e-bank service. Once money reaches a decent level it's shipped to a country with proper security infrastructures in place.

Never had a problem with this method.

[Naroge]

Would be interesting to know the whole background to this. Certainly something to learn here.

I don't know about Thai Commercial Bank, but with Bangkok Bank it would not be possible to transfer money to a new account as they also need a OTP (One Time Password) sent to your mobile phone. And if you want to change your phone number I would assume they send a OTP to your present phone or you might have to do it at the bank office.

[klauskunkel]

The loophole that was in the internet banking system allowed him to log into his account and steal the money from his account.

So then, whats the loophole? Anyone can answer? What about you, you investigative reporter you?!?

They think it's there, but whenever they get too close, they fall in and can't get out. Voracious loophole!

[robia6]

There are many phising sites that look exactly like your internet banking login page but are snide. They're set up to get your login & password information, so then they can login in to your real internet banking site and transfer money to other accounts. Not sure how they can transfer money without OTP or token though?

[transam]

Guess he did not keep his passwords secure, I have been using it many years with no problem.

OR like most here, no up to date anti virus or malware protection.

[neek]

The only time I called the SCB (Siam Commercial Bank) online helpdesk because I'd forgotten my password, the nice lady asked me my username, and told me my reset password. I logged on, only to find that it wasn't my account. Turned out I'd got my username wrong on the phone, she had done absolutely no identity checks on me, and had given me full access to some random person's online bank account. They only had about 600 baht in it and no transactions for the past 3 years, so it seemed like a very dormant account that a real thief wouldn't have been able to take much from.

Let's just say I don't trust online banking in Thailand any more

[jacknorman]

what a lot of crap, even transfer 500 thb from that bank i need OTP to the only registered phone with that account, and daily transfer is the same as ATM if you havent changed it

Who is on the picture ? the thief ? 555 maybe he skyped with an employe 5555

[neek]

Guess he did not keep his passwords secure, I have been using it many years with no problem.

OR like most here, no up to date anti virus or malware protection.

While I agree, this sounds very biased against the Thais. Not a single small UK company I have worked with has paid a bit of attention to their antivirus software, until something awful happened and suddenly it's important. Thailand certainly isn't the only place you'll find clueless or careless people who don't hold the integrity of the business they work for at heart. The big boys in the UK that have an IT department are generally more switched on because they have someone whose job it is to know these things. I don't know about the Thai companies with such a department.

[transam]

Guess he did not keep his passwords secure, I have been using it many years with no problem.

OR like most here, no up to date anti virus or malware protection.

While I agree, this sounds very biased against the Thais. Not a single small UK company I have worked with has paid a bit of attention to their antivirus software, until something awful happened and suddenly it's important. Thailand certainly isn't the only place you'll find clueless or careless people who don't hold the integrity of the business they work for at heart. The big boys in the UK that have an IT department are generally more switched on because they have someone whose job it is to know these things. I don't know about the Thai companies with such a department.

Biased against Thais ........ . With the little I know about PC's, Thai friends have brought their LT to me to fix, always zillions of nasties is/was the cause. I ''clean'' them and show them how to keep them ''clean'', do they follow my advice, eeeer, noooooooooooooo.

[phuket Mike]

I wondered about the OTP token, but of course the cloning of a sim is not difficult with the right technology, all the main telephone company shops have the tech., I got my sim cloned recently because the old one would not connect.

[Redhawk]

Would be interesting to know the whole background to this. Certainly something to learn here.

I don't know about Thai Commercial Bank, but with Bangkok Bank it would not be possible to transfer money to a new account as they also need a OTP (One Time Password) sent to your mobile phone. And if you want to change your phone number I would assume they send a OTP to your present phone or you might have to do it at the bank office.

Changing telephone no. for the OTP can only be done at your branch by now!

[transam]

Must add. Just got a new hard drive, installed AVG the ''posh'' version. Fiddling around one day thought I would download my old favourite SuperAntiSpyware just to make sure. It found Trojan - Banker , seems this one tries to steal bank details.

[Naroge]

Would be interesting to know the whole background to this. Certainly something to learn here.

I don't know about Thai Commercial Bank, but with Bangkok Bank it would not be possible to transfer money to a new account as they also need a OTP (One Time Password) sent to your mobile phone. And if you want to change your phone number I would assume they send a OTP to your present phone or you might have to do it at the bank office.

Changing telephone no. for the OTP can only be done at your branch by now!

Thanks. Good to know. One possible loophole closed.

[belg]

the loophole here is, if you got a virus/worm whatever, with keylogger, they can easely steal your info

did the suspect go to porn or warez sites? as these are the main culprit for spreading... or the famous email with link ...

as long as in thai banks, they don't start to check your credentials (calculator kind of tool with code), than it is rather dangerous to have an internet account overhere

[schondie]

Must add. Just got a new hard drive, installed AVG the ''posh'' version. Fiddling around one day thought I would download my old favourite SuperAntiSpyware just to make sure. It found Trojan - Banker , seems this one tries to steal bank details.

The ever trusty SuperAntiSpyware, every time I clean out someone's computer that finds all the hidden nasties that the usual AV programs miss.

I find my western friends are just as apathetic about computer security as everyone else. The usual scenario is;

1. They never install updates.

2. AV programs are never updated or used to scan their computers.

3. Get badly infected and then need help.

4. Give them a list of weekly checks to do.

5. Ignore number 4 and go back to the beginning again.

[Naroge]

the loophole here is, if you got a virus/worm whatever, with keylogger, they can easely steal your info

did the suspect go to porn or warez sites? as these are the main culprit for spreading... or the famous email with link ...

as long as in thai banks, they don't start to check your credentials (calculator kind of tool with code), than it is rather dangerous to have an internet account overhere

With a OTP or physical token an intruder can do only limited harm, even if they have your password. Most important is that they cannot create new account (i.e. their own) to transfer money to.

[Naroge]

The only time I called the SCB (Siam Commercial Bank) online helpdesk because I'd forgotten my password, the nice lady asked me my username, and told me my reset password. I logged on, only to find that it wasn't my account. Turned out I'd got my username wrong on the phone, she had done absolutely no identity checks on me, and had given me full access to some random person's online bank account. They only had about 600 baht in it and no transactions for the past 3 years, so it seemed like a very dormant account that a real thief wouldn't have been able to take much from.

Let's just say I don't trust online banking in Thailand any more

Unbelievable.. I cannot understand how they allow to reset password over phone, even if they had done an identity check. The minimum I would expect is that they send the reset password to an email address, that you previously had connected to the account (previously is the key word).

[Anon999]

Guess he did not keep his passwords secure, I have been using it many years with no problem.

Some passwords are easily guessed particularly if they only numeric. That is why you need to make sure yours have a secure format.

[umbanda]

Hundred of people are making good money in this way...getting access to other people's account to take just very small amounts every month in the way nobody will notice it.....But...they do with hundred of accounts every day..until one day they decide to take all your money...If you do Internet banking and /or give your personal info on the Internet you are taking the risk.....Check your bank and credit card statement and look for those small debits without explanation..You will be very upset...may be happening for years...

[umbanda]

I looked in the comments here. I have to say that people are very naive. Do you know how to open a car's door without the key in 5 seconds?....probably not because you do not need to know. Well....Internet crime is very easy to do for the "professionals"....but you do not believe because you are not one of them...

[transam]

I looked in the comments here. I have to say that people are very naive. Do you know how to open a car's door without the key in 5 seconds?....probably not because you do not need to know. Well....Internet crime is very easy to do for the "professionals"....but you do not believe because you are not one of them...

Glad we have you on board, as you are one of our chums l am sure you will reveal all.

Well done that man AND looking forward to your revaluations to secure us all.

10 out of 10 from me.

[Cuban]

More likely a trojan infection on the user's computer.

The failure is good AV and malware detection and sloppy user awareness.

Just because Thai news reports this as "hacking" see it for what it is like the many cases of "The truck lost control and killed all those people!", the responsibility lies with the person behind the keyboard not the computer.

[KaronSteve]

Whenever I log in to Kaiskorn Bank I get the following page.

https://online.kasikornbankgroup.com/K-Online/preLogin/popupPreLogin.jsp?lang=en

Edited August 8, 2013 by KaronSteve

[tingtong]

Guess he did not keep his passwords secure, I have been using it many years with no problem.

Some passwords are easily guessed particularly if they only numeric. That is why you need to make sure yours have a secure format.

just yesterday read, that a report found out that globally 10% of the people still use the credit card default PIN code of 1234. so, go figure...

however, no one addressed how one knew that this particular account has:

A. 400.000 thb on it

B. no daily limit to transfer?

C. no further verification to transfer, ie. one time PIN, or callback to verify

to be honest, in my mind it can be an inside job...just as much it looks a fraud as a thieft.