In Sweden it's getting more and more common that thieves hijack/steal mobile phones and use it, for example, to play poker for money online. One of the latest victims for this was a girl from Sweden who had her mobile stolen whilst she visited a nightclub with some friends. Half an hour after the mobile had been stolen, the thief (or thieves) had lost 5 000 sek (about 550 euro) on poker and paid i[...] Read more » Sweden: Thieves hijack mobiles to play poker online with your money!
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
That is crazy, since when did your phone become a CC? I would refuse to pay the bill as it is the phone company making these risks possible, phones get stole/lost all the time. Much better security and awareness needs to be made before we all start using our phones for credit transactions, no doubt it will happen quite soon.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by B1gfoot: That is crazy, since when did your phone become a CC?
In Japan this has been the case for quite a few years.. Hasn't taken off in Australia yet, I have no idea about the UK.
But yeah, that is part of the "4th generation" mobile platform, it is supposed to become really popular/big in the near future.. Started off just small things, like being able to use a phone to make purchases from a vending machine at a train station for example (purchases charged to your mobile account of course).
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by shokaku:
The new smart phones (Iphone, Android) are indeed just like small computers with an internet connection.
That isn't it. Services actually charge to your mobile account. It's not about going on the internet on your phone, you actually DIAL/SMS the service from the mobile and whatever the product/service is that you have dialled gets billed to your mobile account.
Joined: May '08
Location: Sweden
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 1362
From what I understand it is quite common here to pay like the busfare and the trainticket with your mobile phone. But I think that is just with a textmessage.
Me, I'm over 40, so I'm from the jurassic-period, when it comes to these things...
Joined: Jun '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 68 (M)
Posts: 221
never stops amazing me how the lowlife find ways of thievery and fraud , some say human nature leads some in this direction but I see children as blank slates that parents and societies write apon, so if this is true parents or peers , lead most to the seedy side of life, ah well what will be will be
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
Swedish are becoming nuts (this could be a nice joke, dont you think? nuts as best game, nuts as crazy)! Is it possible to play on iPhone? Not having flash must be a con... And, like iPhone, one can trace the cellphone so that, when robbed, it can be automaticaly shut down. If people take this type of concerns, maybe this crime wave can slow down faster!
------------ Swedish are becoming nuts (this could be a nice joke, dont you think? nuts as best game, nuts as crazy)! Is it possible to play on iPhone? Not having flash must be a con... And, like iPhone, one can trace the cellphone so that, when robbed, it can be automaticaly shut down. If people take this type of concerns, maybe this crime wave can slow down faster!
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
This sucks big time, but i think only certain countries have this mobile option for phones, i'm pretty sure we didn't have this paying method on our country...
Still, this really sucks, i hope that girl will be able evetually to get his money back from an insurance company...
For safety i always run a cleaning software before logging in my bank account
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
dont think many people are getting the idea, they didnt play from phone or use internet to play. they used mobile phone to "pay" for money transactions, like an e-wallet (not exactly the same though)
Joined: Jan '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 1
Personally, I don't think this is anything new...
Fine the online gambling element is new but ever since phones had Bluetooth, people have been hacking phones will insecure Bluetooth (i.e no password or some kind of vulnerability) and making remote phone calls to a premium (i.e £10/min) phone line that the criminal group has set up. They have a number of people doing this in a number of public places. Within a week they have made thousands of £s and they shut down the number which was probably set up totally anonymously with no link back to the criminal gang and then they restart in some other city. All courtesy of people's phones and being unaware that someone has made a very expensive call until they get a bill for £3000 at the end of the month.
Even before bluetooth, the criminals were doing this by simply stealing someone's mobile. However instead of hacking in and just making a phone call for a few minutes per person they could make hour long phone calls until the phone gets barred. Again, after a week or so they shut it all down and move on after becoming thousands of pounds richer.
Obviously, none of this required a smart phone a simple Nokia 5210 would work!!! (or any other really old phone)
It sucks but where there is a way for a criminal to make money you can be 100% certain they will be. In fact, even if there isn't a way to make money... the (more stupid) criminals will still have a go at trying to make some cash!
Joined: Jun '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 1332
all i can say is pay as you go.... no big bills and no use to anyone if you only have a couple of £,$ etc......only trouble is you keep running out at the worst time.. ,i dont even have a mobile anymore.but if you could play poker on them it would be tempting... just thought if these guys lost the money at poker would it not be a straight forward Chipdump into 1 account and easy to trace?
Joined: Jul '11
Location: Brazil
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 130
What? The humanity is lost, dude. They have detroy all the world. I did not realize that people has so cleverness to do the evil. Now, I always will stay in the shadow of underwolrd and hunt this bastards.
In my country (Hungary), have not heard of such things to steal mobile phones online transactions. I do not know that we would be possible to do so. Countries where you can there really be careful, but I think you inhale the phones set to initiate a payment to any unauthorized person about it.
