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Man steals $50,000 by taking a few pennies at a time.

blog.wired.com — Maybe the crime of the century if you ask me. Just like in 'Hackers' and 'Office Space' a California man has been indicted for a inventive scheme that allegedly siphoned $50,000 from online brokerage houses E-trade and Schwab.com in six months -- a few pennies at a time, and using the names of cartoon characters.

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  • thegr8db, on 05/27/2008, -16/+195A La Office Space...
  • nomadofthewaves, on 05/27/2008, -65/+62...its like superman 2....
    • texasag03, on 05/28/2008, -12/+2That's exactly what I thought...
    • mrblaack, on 05/28/2008, -1/+85you mean Superman 3?
    • heyblue, on 05/28/2008, -3/+37Superman III
    • dickardwa, on 05/28/2008, -3/+35What are you guys talking about? Did this guy plot to steal some pennies AND release supervillains from a futuristic space prison?

    • Dumbledorito, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2"They gotta smoke somethin'..."
    • ethanpack, on 05/28/2008, -0/+18Ok! Ok! I must have, I must have put a decimal point in the wrong place
      or something... I always do that! I always mess up some mundane
      detail!
      • IllBeBack, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Yeah, and now you're going to be going to Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison.
      • Corr0sive, on 05/29/2008, -0/+3HE SAYS MUNDANE?!!? i always thought he said Monday...
      • ToothyMcshark, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1I think Michael does say mundane, but Peter hears Monday because of the bitch receptionist.
        • ethanpack, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Peter hears mundane. His reply is something along the lines of "What exactly is this mundane detail, Michael?!"

          But after realizing what they had done, I'm sure they all were indeed having a severe case of the Mondays... :o(
  • madwaxer, on 05/28/2008, -17/+2banks are stupid!
  • SevenC, on 05/28/2008, -10/+75That boy ain't right.
    • MrWally, on 05/28/2008, -4/+5Or he is very, very right.
    • troye, on 05/30/2008, -0/+1I say he's clever but he did it wrong by not cashing out faster and subsequently not covering that trail of his.
  • imacommi, on 05/28/2008, -9/+28One would think that when you see an computer crime idea from a movie as old as superman 2 that you would realize you probably will not get away with it...
    • NYankee2003, on 05/29/2008, -1/+5you mean superman III
    • DraxusD, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1this really isn't the same idea... the other one's better.
    • RSterkenburg, on 05/29/2008, -7/+2Dude, even the DESCRIPTION mentions the movie Hackers. Stealing, pennies at a time, was basically the plot of the movie Hackers, and it came out like 9 years before Spiderman 2.
    • stilesja, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1Well the Richard Donner cut of Superman II was better anyway
    • dlite922, on 05/29/2008, -3/+2Yeah but this guy did it the "idiot" way.

      They found him because he had just a few bank accounts and used the same IP and Internet Service.

      Maybe he did it too fast but I could use 3 People to open up up to 20 some bank accounts and use a ***** load of IPs from ALL over the world.

      But not do it in such a short time, maybe 2 Years. A $50,000 will be enough for me to put in a compound interest and live off of it in my late 40s as retirement money.

      This could be done better and people will perfect it, they should have given him the money to shut up instead of publicizing it.
    • Wolfgarden, on 05/30/2008, -0/+1how come its a penny for your thoughts but you have to but your two cents in...somebody is makin a penny.
  • moulin1, on 05/28/2008, -17/+1Says in the indictment "attempted". I doubt he ever got one penny. See they put the penny in one day then take it back the next (they don't really give away the pennies). So he has one day to spend the money on his debit card. It was a stupid idea and he's going to jail for 20 years. Script kiddies!
    • moxley, on 05/28/2008, -1/+7No, they actually don't take it back.

      Now you know why you;ve been dugg down...Check yr facts script kiddie!
    • moulin1, on 06/04/2008, -0/+1I get my facts from being a CFO for 16 years and managing $30 million a year in credit card transactions. Where did you get yours?
  • tmaiden, on 05/28/2008, -4/+302For the past 6 months I have been walking into stores and taking pennies out of the "give a penny, take a penny" cups. I am now up to $2.87 Hoping to break the 300 mark by next month.
    • Joshuarr, on 05/28/2008, -4/+44you mean the pennies for everybody cups?
      • directrix13, on 05/28/2008, -1/+64No, for the crippled children.
        • legoalert33, on 05/28/2008, -2/+39Your stealing from crippled children!?
        • Cruelapollo, on 05/28/2008, -1/+48I could get in trouble for it, but they'll have to catch me first.
        • marx2k, on 05/28/2008, -15/+6Cruelapollo: How are they going to catch you? They're crippled! Maybe Ziggy will pop off the cardboard backing and beat you to death one day.
        • MrWally, on 05/28/2008, -1/+23Whoosh!
    • PabloMac, on 05/28/2008, -2/+42Too bad a large percentage of crimes are solved when the perpetrator brags about it to other people.
    • YanMan, on 05/28/2008, -1/+59Need a penny? Take a penny.
      Need two? Get a job!
    • MysticSavage, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Gayest. Crime Spree. Ever.
    • aeoo, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1You sir represent the best of American entrepreneurship! Kudos to you! I wish I had thought of that idea...
  • Elliottx, on 05/28/2008, -2/+115=O Holy *****. I did the same thing with paypal (But only twice and legitly)

    I made an account, they sent little bits of money to my account and i failed to verify it, so they locked my account. I reopened it and asked for the verification again and they sent it =/

    I GAINED A WHOLE 14 PENCE! Woooo....
    • ImpaledNoob, on 05/28/2008, -2/+6Too bad ebay owns you now :(
    • Skitals, on 05/28/2008, -2/+12I did it once and got 6 pence. I'm Sixpence none the richer.
  • elliotys, on 05/28/2008, -3/+73For some reason this doesn't really bother me.
  • blacktriangle, on 05/28/2008, -7/+222No, no, no. We're going to federal POUND ME IN THE ASS prison.
    • bagelmaster, on 05/28/2008, -0/+36You are a very BAD person, Peter.
    • Remmiz, on 05/28/2008, -0/+74Lawrence, you awake?
      Yeah.
      You wanna come over?
      No thanks, man. I don't want you ***** up my life too.
    • Yoness, on 05/28/2008, -0/+12The trick is to kick someones ass the 1st day...
    • r1y23, on 05/28/2008, -16/+7WOAH! Those quotes were all from the movie "Office Space". You guys are such clever little devils.
  • yumlum, on 05/28/2008, -13/+1really?
    don't beleave
  • elamr, on 05/28/2008, -7/+25The old Salami Attack, huh?
    A salami attack is a series of minor data-security attacks that together results in a larger attack. For example, a fraud activity in a bank where an employee steals a small amount of funds from several accounts, can be considered a salami attack.

    The main idea is to make the change as minuscule as possible so that any single transaction will go completely unnoticed[1] (This is due in part to round-off and truncation error[2]).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_attack
    • chuckDontSurf, on 05/28/2008, -1/+26I thought that "Salami Attack" meant something much, much different.
    • twiztidsinz, on 05/28/2008, -7/+1I dunno whats worse..
      That THAT is what a Salami Attack is... or that you've looked it up.
      Or maybe the thought process involved in actually looking that up.
    • TommySalami, on 05/29/2008, -0/+3I like the name they gave it
  • Nicksname1, on 05/28/2008, -11/+4This guy is going to a "federal pound me in the ass prison"!
  • atbnet, on 05/28/2008, -2/+30He must have placed the decimal point in the wrong place or else he wouldn't have gotten caught.
    • Charun, on 05/28/2008, -0/+12They always screw up some mundane detail.
      • anewname, on 05/29/2008, -0/+8WELL THIS IS NOT A MUNDANE DETAIL, MICHAEL!
  • KonnayahaBoogie, on 05/28/2008, -2/+29God bless this man.
  • aserer511, on 05/28/2008, -2/+63I KNEW this was genius 'soon as i heard it in office space
    • notwizt, on 05/29/2008, -0/+0Apparently not too genious since he was caught
  • jayrok, on 05/28/2008, -2/+3Someone build this man a money bin.
  • Modestexcuse, on 05/28/2008, -1/+7I've thought about this possibility many times, but come on! It seems too easy to get caught, and what do you know? I'd rather work for a living.
  • asskicker32, on 05/28/2008, -3/+48You know the tray at the 7/11, it's like that but instead of taking a penny we are taking a fraction of a penny and doing it several thousand times a day.
    --So you're telling me that you're taking money that's not yours? And you're going to make a lot of money from it? Now how isn't this stealing???
    • Cerebron, on 05/28/2008, -2/+3fractions of cents aren't accounted for sometimes, and they get 'lost'.
    • mojoe176, on 05/29/2008, -0/+4Hey Peter man, Check out the chick on channel 9
    • bustaballs, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1It's called taxation. ;)
  • cakrauss, on 05/28/2008, -2/+9Talk about a paper trail.
  • mrsneakypat, on 05/28/2008, -2/+53Rusty Shackleford.
    • IanPR, on 05/28/2008, -4/+3Dugg for^^
    • thelock65, on 05/29/2008, -0/+3dude i watched an episode today where he used that name. awesome
  • Typhoon2009, on 05/28/2008, -8/+7i'll burn down the building...
    • IllBeBack, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5No, it was "I'll set the building on fire."
  • Shawshanksr, on 05/28/2008, -3/+9a daring and brilliant crime it is but not the crime of the century. this isnt the first guy to try this trick... a man (also in america), was a bank employee in one of the largest banks in america (cant remember the name). he set up an account for himself which took a few pennies every month from millions of accounts... he went unnoticed for something like 8 years before a sharp client noticed that his account statement kept coming a few pennies short every month and reported it to the bank. he was caught soon after..
    that takes the award of crime of the century
    • hellotyler, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Crazy that someone actually noticed a few pennies...
    • MysticSavage, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Must be a pretty slow century.
  • Owned1Up, on 05/28/2008, -3/+188Damn it feels good to be a gangster...
    • tschau, on 05/28/2008, -3/+6yes, it does, but in the case of this gentleman,
      when the ***** jumps off, what the ***** you gonna do?
      • BirdCatcher, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1haha, i found your comment witty, tschau... don't feel bad for getting dugg down.
  • grodrigu, on 05/28/2008, -2/+8That's a lot of time spent for pennies. He might have been able to get money faster recycling cans and bottles.
    • jnordb, on 05/28/2008, -0/+6Yeah, but he'd have to fight homeless people for 'em.
    • zzz@tkz, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Just took the time to write the script and execute it.

      I wrote a script to download porn, took longer than actually downloading it manually, but I had fun writing it, and it payed off in the long run.
  • awesometastic1, on 05/28/2008, -3/+15he didn't steal anything. they gave him the money... thousands of times. As long as there is nothing in the terms of agreement against this (ala google has no such restriction), the guy should get to keep the money and walk.
    • Frost9999, on 05/28/2008, -0/+24Problem is that he committed bank fraud by supplying false identity information.
    • Fxer, on 05/28/2008, -0/+21They're arresting him for Identity Fraud.
    • Hello1024, on 05/28/2008, -0/+9Agreed - except he broke the law by giving a false name.

      If he'd used his real name it probably wouldn't have been illegal (since after all, where's the crime in filling in a form with real details, even if you do it more than once), and the banks would have to close the loophole.

      It's an easy thing for the banks to fix - never pay the "verification amount" to one bank account more than say 10x.
    • Hello1024, on 05/28/2008, -2/+7I've actually been wondering this - is it a crime to "script" things I could do legally anyway?

      For example, I've been thinking about opening a few thousand bank accounts so every company that asks to "direct debit" my account can be given a different account number. Then I write a database backend to manage all the accounts and put just the right amount of money in each account to cover each bill, and if companies try to rip me off or double charge me, the payment will be denied.

      (this is a sore point since a company just overcharged me ~$6000 today causing big financial issues)
      • deadbeatsaint, on 05/29/2008, -0/+3No
      • 3Den, on 05/29/2008, -1/+0No, it's not, at least not in principle.

        Where are you going to open a few thousand bank accounts though? I don't think any normal bank will allow it.

        ON this particular crime - whether the terms of service disallows it or not, the purpose of the micr-deposit is to verify connectivity, not pay you money. Taking advantage of it is a dirtbag move.

    • Cerebron, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0He may have made a tactical error using false information, and that could result in various fraud charges sticking.
    • NYankee2003, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1even if he gave a real name, it would still be entering a contract with the individual bank in bad faith. not criminal, but the banks could recover in civil court.
  • Mr.Gone, on 05/28/2008, -1/+52That wasn't fraud, that was a good idea.
    • dstachio, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Good ideas, often if not thought of by the right people first, will be considered a crime.
  • ufia, on 05/28/2008, -2/+87That's a lot of ass pennies.
  • coolguyslim, on 05/28/2008, -8/+0Nice, that guy is smart. It pays to be a hacker or know some computer language. That's it, i'm taking some computer language classes.
  • Zap2, on 05/28/2008, -3/+5he should get to keep the cash, and get a prize for breaking the system
  • zerhynn, on 05/28/2008, -7/+1I saw it in Superman 3.
    • D14BL0, on 05/28/2008, -2/+3You mean 2?
      • zerhynn, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1*****. This is almost as embarrassing as the time I said the DeLorean needed to travel 55 MPH to travel through time.
  • mike7899, on 05/28/2008, -6/+1This guy deserves a medal not a criminal charge. dam i wish i was smart enough to think of that. only would probably do it in mexico under a false name, and then pack up a week later, move to another country and do it again, then repeat until millionaire. Then quit while i'm ahead. Then invest in mutual funds. And live live to the fullest.
  • adrenaline33, on 05/28/2008, -10/+4This isn't the same thing as the Office Space scheme, not even really that similar.
  • Primatelord, on 05/28/2008, -1/+23Dude shoulda used some proxies. They traced everything back to just 5 different IP addresses under his DSL account...
  • dafragsta, on 05/28/2008, -9/+2The pennies for sick children?

    /this is a *****!
  • firebirdx01, on 05/28/2008, -2/+32so if u create 58,000 authentic accounts will this work?
    • NYankee2003, on 05/29/2008, -0/+2i doubt it. sooner or later i bet the bank would notice they opened 11,000 accounts to the same name, address (ss#?) etc
    • DraxusD, on 05/29/2008, -0/+2I assume they won't let you create 58,000 accounts with the same info since he had to use tons of different names.
  • cwoolf34, on 05/28/2008, -6/+1I have done the same thing with etrade... not on purpose though. I accidentally put the wrong amounts in and they had to restart the verification process 3 different times because I had a few accounts I was adding. I made a cool $2.31 by the end. The funny thing is I thought about this and thought that at some point they would catch on if you used the same IP address several times. I just can't believe someone took the time to get that much money out of it. I bet a script did most of the work, but still... just someone actually following through with such a funny idea.
    • orlyfactor, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3If you actually read the article, he did use a script.
  • backslashdigg, on 05/28/2008, -11/+6Damn it feels good to be a gangster...
    • DroppedGT, on 05/29/2008, -0/+2Damn it sounds like an echo in here...
    • backslashdigg, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1Yeah..I swear I beat the other guy to it =(
  • jordanlgta, on 05/28/2008, -8/+2Ahhh yes...Office Space jokes feel so fresh and new. When did that movie come out? 9 years ago?
  • SkoGoody, on 05/28/2008, -1/+2Years of seeing prison inmates O-Face's await. Good job!
  • mike23w, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2Why didn't I think of that?
    • damnyooneek, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2good thing you didnt because you would be in that guy's shoes right now
    • jp12380, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Yeah, if you did you would be under arrest and facing charges.
    • arjie, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1Because your name isn't L'argent. it's all in the name. You'll probably grow up to steal microphones, for instance.
  • gothelium, on 05/28/2008, -0/+7Dugg for his use of Rusty Shackleford :D
  • bossm4n, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1Did he ever use the name, William Fontaine DeLaTour "Bill" Dauterive? This guy must be a huge Mike Judge fan if he's borrowing from his movies and animated shows.
  • stix213, on 05/28/2008, -3/+29Yeah I thought of this scheme myself about 7 years ago, but never had the balls to do it. I wouldn't have been stupid enough to run the script from my home internet account though.....

    Get a laptop, temporarily change your wifi MAC address to a new number (Linux can do it, can your OS?), War Drive until you find a new open wifi access point, and leave your car outside with your laptop running the script with the lid closed and powered off your car's battery with an inverter. You should get 12 hours or so of script runtime each time - more if you want to spend more than 10 minutes setting this up (some extra batteries, etc), and then that night have a buddy drive you back to your car and bring some jumper cables just in case. Use the same place a few times, and then move on to a new one - using places without cameras outside.

    That's just off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are even better ways to do it. This guy is just a dumbass running this from his house. Didn't he think anyone would ever notice thousands of fake accounts from the same IP address?
    • coleki, on 05/28/2008, -1/+6While I am now a linux user at home, it was always my pet peeve that linux users would try to hold the MAC address thing over Windows users' heads. It's possible to change your MAC address in Windows XP Pro, and has been for a long time. I'm not sure about earlier versions of Windows, or about XP Home (but then again, if you're using Home, should you care?).
      • stix213, on 05/30/2008, -0/+1Yes it is possible, but it depends on the hardware manufacturer adding that support to their driver. Many (most?) manufacturers are not providing this feature for Windows users.
    • anewname, on 05/29/2008, -0/+4How about just using Tor?
    • sevenalive, on 05/29/2008, -1/+14It wouldn't matter, the money is all going to a few bank accounts in which he has to verify his identity. Doing what you just said wouldn't of mattered.
      • Twisted871, on 05/29/2008, -3/+2Did you read the article? The reason he was caught was because the bank found out all the accounts were bogus, made with completely false information, and then they traced it back to his home IP. So Stix's plan would work in theory.
      • stix213, on 05/30/2008, -1/+1Getting your local DMV to issue you an ID for someone that doesn't really exist is far easier than you probably think, then your problem of verifying your identity with the financial institutions is solved.

        This just takes a lot of work with the birth certificate forgery (easy), creating a fake address for your fake person that actually receives mail (even easier) , and researching a usable SSN that won't red flag you (This used to be a 5 minute step, but after 9/11 you will have to spend an afternoon on this).

        Then you create bank accounts, etc for your fake person and no one could possibly tell you aren't you because you have a government issued ID to prove it.
  • kurupttek, on 05/28/2008, -2/+9Reminds me of
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5monB4fIzy8
  • mjfarina, on 05/28/2008, -8/+2My bet is that he gets a good job and a movie [ie. Catch me if you can]
    • ktkc7c, on 05/29/2008, -0/+5my bet is he takes it up the ass at a "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison"
      • sevenalive, on 05/29/2008, -1/+1Just because you see it in movies, doesn't make it true.
  • uberbucket1, on 05/28/2008, -13/+3Absolutely guaranteed not to be Rick Roll: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ULgwbvj768E
  • DaviDTC, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2When I signed up for my ingdirect account I believe they took the money back. After reading this article I don't remember seeing E-trade take the money back.
  • hellomatt, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4now he can do 2 chicks at the same time
  • ModernChem, on 05/28/2008, -0/+5dont ***** with google
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