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Sweden: Thieves hijack mobiles to play poker online with your money! |
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Tags:
hijack, mobile, poker, sweden, thieves.
Posted on 04 August 2011 by "T".
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 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 it with her mobile.
"I noticed that someone had unzipped my bag and though that mobile, wallet and everything else of value would be gone. But only the mobile was stolen," the girl said in an interview with a local newspaper.
She went to the police station and reported that her mobile had been stolen so she could block the sim card and get a new mobile with the same number. When she could use her old number again a man from Zong, a company that works with mobile bills, called and started asking questions.
"I went quiet then asked him what had happened. He told me that money transactions had been made from my number to their company. I was in chock and asked him how much money. He answered that it was 5 000 sek."
Since the thieves had access to her mobile they didn't need any account details or passwords to get the money. And according to the local police station where the girl lives, this is the second case in a very short time.
"I never heard of it before and I don't know anyone who has fell victim for it either. When I have told people about it they think it's crazy that it's possible to do so just with a mobile number. But people also realize how easy it is.
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16 comments on "Sweden: Thieves hijack mobiles to play poker online with your money!"
| B1gfoot | 04/08/2011 21:12:48 GMT |
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.
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| jessthehuman | 05/08/2011 00:13:28 GMT |
Posted by B1gfoot:
That is crazy, since when did your phone become a CC?
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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).
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| shokaku | 05/08/2011 04:50:04 GMT |
Posted by B1gfoot:
That is crazy, since when did your phone become a CC?
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You're over 30 -> out of the stone age 
The new smart phones (Iphone, Android) are indeed just like small computers with an internet connection.
Joke
New we know how Isildur started playing poker
/Joke
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| jessthehuman | 05/08/2011 05:33:39 GMT |
Posted by shokaku:
The new smart phones (Iphone, Android) are indeed just like small computers with an internet connection.
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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.
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check it out
http://www.zong.com/
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| Pjot | 05/08/2011 07:19:11 GMT |
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...
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| ArcticBear | 05/08/2011 07:19:49 GMT |
| 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
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| Fakiry | 05/08/2011 12:54:28 GMT |
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!
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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!
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| Macubaas | 05/08/2011 15:23:52 GMT |
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 
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| SuperNoob | 05/08/2011 15:24:38 GMT |
| 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)
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| TheMachineQC | 05/08/2011 17:27:16 GMT |
Ouch!! One more reason to not have a cellphone
Poor girl I hope she got her money back.
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| jessthehuman | 05/08/2011 21:16:36 GMT |
Posted by SuperNoob:
dont think many people are getting the idea |
lol yeah.. oh well  
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| JayReid | 05/08/2011 22:27:27 GMT |
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! 
Damn idiots!!! 
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| callie28 | 05/08/2011 23:29:52 GMT |
| 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?
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| TUNGUSKANO | 06/08/2011 13:09:35 GMT |
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. 
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| 19nita74 | 07/08/2011 08:46:03 GMT |
| 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.
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| Btownd87 | 07/08/2011 22:01:13 GMT |
| Password protect your phone perhaps?
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