A How-Not-To Guide to Cyber-Extortion 311
TexasDex writes "The Register reports: Myron Tereshchuk, 42, of Maryland, pleaded guilty to "attempted extortion affecting commerce" for sending threatening messages to a competing patent firm, including a demand for $17 million in exchange for not revealing sensitive information. He was clever in hiding his tracks, the messages came from two different homes and a dentist's office, all of which turned out to be running unsecured WAPs. He also avoided a web bug sent by the firm, and managed to penetrate the company's computer system. But he made a few mistakes. First of all he was already a prime suspect due to "past altercations between Tereshchuk and the company". But "the clearest sign came when he issued the $17m extortion demand, and instructed the company to 'make the check payable to Myron Tereshchuk.'""
Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Funny)
There's a TV show broadcast over here in the UK (on some of the cable channels) "America's Dumbest Criminals" - guess this guy'll be on soon enough. I have to admit I thought a lot of the stories were made up, but if people are going to sign their REAL NAME to an extortion demand, sheesh, perhaps people *can* be that stupid.
Well, on the up-side, it at least frees the cops' time up so they can catch criminals with at least 1 brain cell. Let's hope the feedback loop stays negative...
Simon.
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Interesting)
The guy who robs the bank but drops his wallet (with ID inside)
The guy who writes a bank robbery note on the back of his own checking account deposit slip.
And yes, both are true stories. Its probably a Good Thing(tm) that most criminals are incredibly stupid.
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Informative)
News of the Weird [newsoftheweird.com] can be found here. Its a very good weekly read that has tons of these exact type of stories.
Hey, it really works! (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, that really works. I've robbed a bank last friday and no cops here yet.
... Wait a second, there's somebody knocking my door...
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Informative)
> the power to the sliding doors, which automatically locked when there was a power failure.
Sounds like an urban legend to me. Such doors *unlock* when power is removed, because fire codes require it.
Chris Mattern
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:3, Informative)
And sometimes drasticaly different.
For highly secure areas like banks, or research companies, some areas are allowed to be fail secure or fail safe.
The first meaning, power is needed to UNLOCK the door, and the second power is needed to LOCK the door.
Naturaly when power goes out, the opposite happens. Most times this is because of Maglocks and Door strikes.
It is very possible that this dumbass locked himself in. But even more possible that there is an overri
...and his blood type, too? (Score:2)
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Funny)
So the guy pulls out his driver's license and shows it to her. Haha.
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:2)
most CAUGHT criminal are incredibly stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Not all criminals are dumb (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Funny)
Wrong time, wrong place, wrong everything...
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:3, Informative)
He got about 2 blocks before the dyepack exploded, covering his ummm naughty bits with stinging purple ink (they put an irritant in it). When the police heard the report of a man standing in a public fountain washing his blue balls they knew they
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I was doing some contract work for First Tennessee a few years ago when someone robbed one of their rural branches. Redneck thief walks in, announces he has a bomb, demands money. They give him money, he lights the fuse on the bomb and tosses it over the counter. Luckily, all it did was burn a hole in the carpet, but the tellers were pretty shook up.
When the crook gets back to his house (probably a trailer, never heard one way or the other), the sheriff's department is already there and waiting for him. It seems he had been growing marijuana in the back yard, and they were there to burn his pot patch and arrest him on dope charges. The bank robbery was just a nice bonus for them.
Chip H.
Re:Darwinian criminal behaviour ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Society strives to create an environment whereby you will be better off by putting energies into playing the game and getting ahead.
As the process continues, those who are doing well
will make laws to allow them to continue to do well, thus further fostering the environment.
People too far below the average intelligence can't make it far enough down the path set before them, and so turn to crime, and are caught.
This works fine until those at the top start to use infuence to prevent their competitors, and hence those behind them from getting ahead. This turns into a class system and accelerates until revolution and then socialism.
This in turn leads to loss of competition, and then a continued slowing of progress. Smaller factions break off and start to create their own internal competition, and more capitalist leanings , and then the whole process starts over again.
wait, what was I talking about?
Not that uncommon (Score:2)
There's a TV show broadcast over here in the UK (on some of the cable channels) "America's Dumbest Criminals" - guess this guy'll be on soon enough. I have to admit I thought a lot of the stories were made up, but if people are going to sign their REAL NAME to an extortion demand, sheesh, perhaps people *can* be that stupid.
Actually it is not that uncommon. One of the most common mistakes bank robbers make is to write down the demands on the backs of their deposit slips....
Almost as smart... (Score:5, Funny)
Almost as smart as this guy [wftv.com] - "A man who walked into a Wal-Mart covered in blood and bought garbage bags Friday was charged with murder after authorities found a stabbed body in a trash bin."
Planning people, planning!
Re:Almost as smart... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Almost as smart... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Almost as smart... (Score:2)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/06/26/bloody.s
(slashcode will probably put a space in there somewhere.)
I will crapflood slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Beware!
Rookie mistake (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Family Guy Quote (Score:3, Funny)
Psych ward clerk: "What's your name, sir?"
Peter: "Umm.....Pee.....ter.............Griffin.....damn
Bonus Simpsons quote:
Homer at Post Office (trying to disguise voice): "Hello, my name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me"
Post Office employee: "Ok, what's your first name?"
Homer (smugly): "I don't know!
...but I know that you know that I know... (Score:5, Funny)
pffft. Amateur.
Everybody knows that only an idiot would ask for the check out to himself; so he could use that as an alibi, since nobody would believe that it was him.
Of course, a truly smart criminal would know that a smart investigator would realize that most people know that you shouldn't ask for the check to be written out to your own real name; so he should not have the check written to his own name. But naturally, a well-trained detective would recommend that possibility and immediately discount the possiblity that the name he demanded to be written on the check was his own name; so he should have used his own name.
But the company he was blackmailing was located in Connecticut, which is kind of like a miniature Australia; and everybody knows that Australia is populated by criminals...
(Ow, I think my head hurts now.)
Re:...but I know that you know that I know... (Score:2, Funny)
Truly, you have a dazzling intellect.
Re:...but I know that you know that I know... (Score:2)
Re:...but I know that you know that I know... (Score:3, Funny)
Must be the iocaine.
You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:5, Funny)
I thought the smart criminals became successful politicians. They may not get caught, but unfortunately I hear about 'em all the time.
The biggest criminals... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals (Score:2)
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:5, Interesting)
The vast majority of non-cyber crimes are solved. This is due in part to many crimes being "crimes of opportunity" (no planning) and the fact that most really smart people can get good jobs and understand that most crimes are solved. Also, most crimes that go to court result in conviction (well over 90%).
I worked in the criminal defense field for a while, and from first hand experience, I can tell you that most criminals are not only very stupid, but they seem to think that everyone else is stupid, too. Incompetent people don't realize they are incompetent. There was a British study that demonstrated this a year or two ago.
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:2)
I would like to tell you about a criminal who wasted a week of my life :)
I got called in for jury duty, and was assigned to a case of a fellow who sent his g/f into a burkes outlet store to steal clothes for him, and then when she was caught, punched out the security guard. There was videotape of the g/f, but none of the punching. To make things worse the guy confessed to the whole thing.
We weren't allowed to know this, but it
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:2)
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:2)
Not only did his slip up demonstrate he *understood* english, he spoke in perfect english on the stand.
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:2)
Then what exactly *IS* the purpose of the law if you think everyone on a jury should bypass it? I don't share your opinion on this matter.
The purpose of putting someone in jail is NOT to rehabilitate them, its to remove them from the rest of us who do not go around committing crimes, in the hopes that they will not want to do that again. If they keep doing it again
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:4, Informative)
Punishment (including jail) can serve any combination of the following: to rehabilitate, to exact vengeance, and to isolate [i.e. to protect either the perpetrator or the innocent]. These are typically if not entirely not mutually exclusive, so it isn't unreasonable for a judicial system to adopt more than one.
The problem however, is that the American judicial system (or perhaps more clearly, the American criminal system) does not have a single perspective on the goal of the system [and in all fairness, no other nation in the world has a single perspective either]. Historically, legal Opinions laid down by Judges (these are the explanations written by judges in various cases, and are only presented when desired by the judge) have advocated various combinations of the three possible goals, and so it becomes impossible to determine which is 'right'. As if to make the problem worse, our founding fathers were clearly in dispute about the goals of their criminal system both as implied by their lack of its discussion in the constitution (there are no claims to the purpose of the criminal system in that hallowed document), and in their explicitly written debates about the issue over their lifetimes.
The only consensus is that the Jury is never supposed to attempt to subvert the law to their own opinions. The entire purpose of a jury is to determine the guilt [or lack thereof] of a defendent, and then in certain cases to determine the specific punishment from a list of possibilities.
So, to summarize, I agree that the jury should have given the subject lifetime in jail (if it was his 3rd offense in a 3-strike state), but I disagree with your statement of hte purpose of jailtime.
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:3, Insightful)
All other points aside, I would wholeheartedly agree with you. I would also add that there is a huge problem with the system in that a criminal detainee can demand cable TV, but can't be protected from being raped. Our priorities in the penal syste
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know what is more frightening: That the "Land of the Free" removes people from society, or that north-americans take it so lightly. FYI in most European countries, the prision system has, as primary objective, the rehab
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course. Bringing the innocent to trial would be unfair.
-- Q, Encounter at Farpoint
Talking about high conviction rates ... (Score:3, Insightful)
And that is supposed to mean the system works and society is safe? THINK AGAIN!
A 90-plus percent conviction rate says nothing about
I'm not advocating crime (i concur with other posters in suggesting a politi
Hello. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, but as he was pointing out, hailing 90% conviction rates as evidence of the 'success' of the criminal justice system is unreasonable. There are a number of alternative explanations for the statistics aside from the "we convict almost all criminals we catch". For example, the statistics could just as easily be evidence of significant bias in the judicial process in favour of the prosection.
If you can
Re:You'll never hear about the smart criminals. (Score:2)
Did they use a trojan or spyware? (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhh - sounds like they tried to install some kind of activex microblaster-enabled spyware bug?? Maybe he was using Mozilla [mozilla.org] or something less spyware-enabled? ^_^
Still not a bad hack attempt - smart to use others unsecured wireless connections. I'll bet we hear about more of these types of intrusions in the future (if the media prints it).
Re:Did they use a trojan or spyware? (Score:4, Insightful)
Chances are it was just a GIF/JPEG image embedded in an e-mail. Your e-mail client downloads the image from a web server to display it and whammo - they have your IP address.
Re:Did they use a trojan or spyware? (Score:2)
But a smart extortionist would be browsing the net with links/lynx or opera with images turned off
but this guy doesn't seem to be a techie stupid; only a non-digital-real-world stupid
(Stolen sig : The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.)
Re:Did they use a trojan or spyware? (Score:5, Informative)
Uhh - sounds like they tried to install some kind of activex microblaster-enabled spyware bug??
Web bugs work on all web browsers, unless you have image loading disabled. Read about them here [eff.org], and repeat after me: "I will not be a mindless fanboy. I will not be a mindless fanboy.".
Re:Did they use a trojan or spyware? (Score:2)
I guess the main difference is that in the MS products, viewing images is turned on by default (atleast in the ones I had used 2 years ago)
I don't remember the default in the one I use now, evolution, but I don't think it was enabled out of the source.
Re:Did they use a trojan or spyware? (Score:2, Interesting)
I was recently in an office building in Dallas where I found 7 unsecured wireless connections. Each company had taken the time to change the SSID to match the name of their company, but it seems that encryption was something they didn't want to be bothered with.
I bounced around until I found the one with the fastest internet connection and proceeded to read
this is why extortion never works (Score:5, Insightful)
However, at one point, sooner or later, you need to pickup the cheque or cash. Wire transfers can be traced, as can direct deposits. If there's a cash-only transaction, the cash can be marked and the police can watch the drop point.
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:5, Interesting)
I haven't done it myself, but I've read about it being done(not to mention there have been successful Nigerian 419ers).
That being said, after 9/11 it is getting harder, but not impossible, to make fradulent wire transfers.
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:5, Insightful)
It works sometimes, (Score:2)
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:3, Insightful)
But, if the extorter is trying to achieve a behavioural response, such as a political concession, extortion can be higly effective. I guess, though, we refer to in these instances as 'blackmail' rather than 'extortion'.
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:5, Informative)
There is an old method that does work and is used for extortion and other purposes...
1/ create bank / building society account in ficticious name with false documents and genuine 500 cash deposit. Make sure account comes with an ATM card.
2/ wait one year while doing the minimum to keep the account active. Do not go near the maildrop you used, but do make sure it is paid up.
3/ Do extortion thing, instruct victim in the following manner...
a/ pay 100,000 into account number xxxx at bank xxx
b/ notify the police if you wish, but be advised that should the account be suspended or frozen in ANY way WHATSOEVER you will simply and without further warning do whatever it was you threatened (eg put HIV+ blood in baby food which was most recent case here that comes to mind) and walk away from the whole deal.
4/ withdraw the money from randomly selected ATM machines over the next year or three, just scout them out first to make sure they aren't covered by security cameras (if they are wear a full face crash helmet) and make sure you have a concealed carry for the card itself, don't wanna get caught with that six months later....
You guys ought to get out more, I'm really surprised that in a diverse forum like this nobody knows about this one...
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:2)
Some titles: "Comeback," and "The Outfit." Mostly written in the late 60's, early 70's, and hard to find.
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:2)
No, it was old to me by a fellow con while spending a short vacation at one of Her Majesty's Prisons....
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:2)
Why is it necessary to wait for one year?
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:2, Informative)
However, yes, any method of payment where you can pick it up from multiple points is much better than a single point of capture. ATMs are very good because there are literally hundreds of them to choose from.
Just d
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:5, Informative)
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:5, Insightful)
The threat doesn't have to be 100% realistic - it just has to contain a minimum amount of buzzwords in order to incite fear in the subject, as most people do not think rationally when confronted with such a demand.
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:3, Insightful)
Chris Mattern
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:3, Informative)
This minimizes the "caught with it on you" aspect.
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:3, Insightful)
How difficult would it be to hack into bank computers, creating a bank account, have the money transferred, disable the software bug temporarily, divert that money to other accounts that you create on-the-fly? There's a small window of opportunity where that new accounts are not yet bugged. Withdraw money. Then never log back into their servers! Oh, of course, don't do this from your own phone... :)
If you're that good a cracker, you won't have to use plain old extortion though...
Re:this is why extortion never works (Score:3, Informative)
My face is not important. Sure if I happen to be walking outside the police station just after they show my picture to all cops they will be suspicious. Otherwise there are millions of people in the US who look enough like me that you need to check them out. Sure nearly all are easy to clear, but shear numbers means you can't check all the pictures on file. You compare to known criminals (who are more likely to do something again) and then what? Mind it is a good idea to avoid giving them photos j
Why criminals seem dumb (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why criminals seem dumb (Score:2)
The smart ones steal huge amounts from share-holders (a la Martha), consumers (various price-fixing schemes), tax-payers (Enron extorting money from CA), and others. They don't often get caught, they make huge amounts of money, the sentences are light, and as Ed Norton says in Fight Club; if someone dies (Ford roll-overs, etc), that's ok as long as the cost of settlements is
make the check payable to Myron Tereshchuk (Score:4, Insightful)
Yup, the drop is always the hard part, isn't it?
And thank goodness. We'll always have action movies.
Ricin? (Score:2, Interesting)
A good idea... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A good idea... (Score:2)
I remember that book. When H.A.R.L.I.E. was One, wasn't it?
When will people learn. (Score:4, Insightful)
Writing hold up notes on one of your own return address formatted envelopes is not a good way to go about it either. Or in his case demanding a check in his own name. Cracks me up when I see people make fundamental mistakes like that.
Re:When will people learn. (Score:2)
Numerous methods remain to make you too hard to track.
You can be using a vast army of windows zombies as as proxies (one of the many windows users whose machine was taken over in this fashion successfully defended himself against a child porn charge that way). Any machine where you can wipe the logs is a good place to have the trail go cold.
You can use public libraries, and other public internet locations. Unsecured WAPs work too.
Re:When will people learn. (Score:2, Interesting)
An honest question: where would they go from there when they found out he was using random open wireless networks? That gotta be pretty tough to track down...
Re:When will people learn. (Score:2)
There was a murder case here in Gainesville last year, a grad student of UF was murdered. His laptop was missing, and the police traced it to the MAC address. When the allegeded murderer used that laptop, they nailed him.
Re:When will people learn. (Score:2)
Re:When will people learn. (Score:5, Informative)
You can't stay anonymous forever on the Internet. There are too many methods available to trace a person back to the source. Subpoenaing server logs or ISP client records is a good start.
On the contrary. It is actually quite easy to generate a _completely_ untraceable email address. If one proceeds to use it from different (and carefully chosen) internet cafes and insecure wifi points you could conduct a series of correspondences without any chance of them tracing you. I shan't go into the details here but there are a number of web pages that describe the process. I believe "The Register" linked to such an article about 18 months ago.
Re:When will people learn. (Score:2)
Make check payable to Myron Tereshchuk (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Make check payable to Myron Tereshchuk (Score:2)
HOW x 1000 billion ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Good boy... (Score:2)
The actual court document is even funnier (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The actual court document is even funnier (Score:5, Insightful)
As my friend Kuni would say... (Score:2, Funny)
--
Next up on Wheel of Fish....
Evidence? (Score:5, Interesting)
If so it would be worryingly easy to frame someone.
he must have been reading from SCOs manuals (Score:2, Funny)
Most crooks (Score:2)
Another stupid criminal (Score:3, Funny)
here [jiu-jitsu.net] .
How hard would it be to frame someone like this? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is an example of the sort of societal problems that come from widespread security vulnerabilities in computers. Windows is so easy to take over now that we can't really be sure of the origin of ANYTHING that we find on someone's comp. It's getting to the point where when authorities find something illegal (like say child porn) on a computer and the owner claims that he didn't put it there, there's really no way to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he isn't telling the truth. How hard would it be to write a worm/trojan that causes a computer to automatically download some illegal material, send an email 'tip' to the authorities via some anonymous remailer, and then erase most of the trojan? Can we really ever be sure 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that anyone is responsible for what's on their computers any more? What's to stop a criminal from installing a trojan on his own computer and then claiming (quite reasonably) that someone took over his computer and put the material there?
I really don't want this to turn into a anti-microsoft rant, but Windows vulnerabilities have basically reduced computers to the status of a big unlocked plastic bin that's sitting by the curb in front of everyone's house. If you find something illegal in it then yes, the guy who owns the bin looks pretty suspicious, but who's to say the neighbor didn't put it there? Or some random person who noticed the bin while driving by and decided to stop and place something inside? These security flaws have simultaneously taken away people's accountability for what's on their computers, and made it really easy to frame innocent people for major crimes.
Sad part is Micropatent is full of criminals. (Score:5, Informative)
After all the harassment and insane goings on, it is common to want to seek some sort of revenge, however people need to realize that it is just not worth it and then move on. That's what I had to do. Funny part is this guy never even worked there...
With any luck, someday the feds will set their sites on Micropatent and they'll get what they deserve...
Subject for next 'ask slashdot' (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Subject for next 'ask slashdot' (Score:3, Interesting)
my cousin (Score:3, Funny)
I am consouled by the fact we were both adopted, from different families.
he gets out in Spring of 2006 and wants to move near me
Re:sounds similar (Score:2)
Re:Let's get this over with (Score:5, Funny)