The anti-social network: boys jailed for $26m 'Crimebook' scam

The anti-social network: boys jailed for $26m 'Crimebook' scam

March 3, 2011 - 12:44PM


http://images.watoday.com.au/2011/03...r729-420x0.jpgTwo British schoolboys have been jailed for up to five years for running a $26 million Facebook-style website for criminals dubbed "Crimebook".

Nick Webber, 19, and Ryan Thomas, 18, were found guilty of starting up and operating the online forum GhostMarket.net, where up to 8000 members exchanged details about thousands of stolen credit cards and used the information to defraud banks and shops across the world, The Guardian reported.

Information about 65,000 hacked bank accounts was also shared on the site, prosecutors said.

Judge John Price of Southwark Crown Court in London, said the fraud was on a "massive scale".
"This was a criminal enterprise offering sophisticated advice on how to hack into computers, cause them to malfunction and retrieve personal information from computers - and how to do it on a massive scale."
He said only the age of the teenagers saved them from harsher sentences.
"I'm extremely conscious of the youth of you all. Were you four or five years older the sentence would be much longer."

Mr Webber and Mr Thomas were still at school when they were arrested by police in October 2009 after trying to use the details of a stolen credit card to pay for a £1000 hotel bill, The Guardian said.

Police found 100,000 stolen credit card details on Mr Webber's laptop and traced it back to the GhostMarket.net site - the biggest criminal website they had ever uncovered.
The pair jumped bail and escaped to Majorca in Spain.

Webber taunted police while on the run, writing on a site: "To be a Legend Carder u gotta be a ghost" and adding, "F--- the Police!", London's Daily Telegraph reported.
With Thomas, he was re-arrested in early 2010 after returning to the UK.

Webber was described by prosecutors as an "extremely experienced computer hacker" and the leader of the gang behind the website.

The gang included 21-year-olds Gary Kelly and Shakira Ricardo, who were jailed for five years and 18 months respectively, the BBC reported.

Thomas worked as a moderator on the site.

Thomas and Webber pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make or supply articles for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting offenders, and conspiracy to commit fraud.

The son of former Guernsey politician Anthony Webber, Webber spent his illegal earnings on expensive goods such as cameras, jewellery and plasma televisions, the BBC reported.

His father said he never thought his son would have been involved in such criminal activity.
"He has always been super brilliant at computers but it never occurred to me anything like this would happen," he told the Telegraph last year.
"What happened to Nicholas has been a big shock to both his mother and to me. ... In a very short period of time things went wrong. He is a delightful son in a lot of respects.
"He is the sort of person that the security services should be employing. His skills are such he could do a lot of things but the very sad thing about this is it is going to affect his future career."


smh.com.au