Nick Bredimus On Hackers Arrested In Thailand

Hackers don't simply live and hack in one country. Some of these stories talk about arrests made in other countries for hacking crimes committed in faraway places like Thailand.

1. YIHAT Founder Kimble/Schmitz arrested

   In the movies, whenever a protagonist gets away with a big heist, we invariably see him passing safely through customs in the Caribbean or southeast Asia as the credits begin to roll.
   
   Perhaps this hackneyed Hollywood device was on Kim Schmitz's mind when he chose Thailand as his hideout from German authorities curious about his KimVestor Ponzi scheme.
   
   Yesterday, Thai police arrested Schmitz in Bangkok, acting on a German warrant charging him with securities fraud, Der Spiegel reports....

2. Two arrested in Wales for credit card theft costing $3 million

   Two 18-year-old British men were in custody Friday after an FBI probe of millions of dollars in credit card theft through the hacking of e-commerce sites led investigators to Wales.
   
   The men allegedly used the screen name "Curador" to intrude into nine e-commerce Internet Web sites in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Thailand and Japan....

3. Internet hacker wanted in US arrested in Thailand

   A Ukrainian man wanted in the United States for large-scale Internet fraud and causing more than $100 million in business losses has been arrested in Thailand, US and Thai officials said on Wednesday.
   
   US embassy officials identified the suspect as Maksym Kovalchuk, although he was thought to use a number of aliases. Thai authorities identified him as 25-year-old Maksym Vysochanskyy. He was arrested late on Tuesday while shopping with his wife in Bangkok....

4. Thai police crack credit card wiretap scam

   Tourists from Australia and New Zealand are among an estimated 48,000 victims of a highly-organised credit card fraud ring in Thailand.
   
   According to local reports, crooks intercepted credit card data between merchants and banks in Phuket, the popular Thai resort town....

5. Computer hackers enter Thailand (Scroll down the page)

   Computer hackers from the United States, Germany, and India have reportedly slipped into Thailand recently. According to a police spokesman the hackers have evaded arrests in their homeland, by disguising themselves as tourists and businessmen in Thailand....

6. Millionaire hacker arrested

   The man who claimed to have hacked a Sudanese bank and delivered sensitive Al-Qaeda account information to the FBI has been arrested in Thailand on a German warrant charging him with securities fraud. The extravagant hacker fled Germany last week, leaving a message on his website that indicated he would kill himself on Monday....

It is very difficult to say that those who rely upon hacking are all criminals. The United States government and other governments employ their own hackers to break into computer systems in the process of conducting criminal investigations, conducting counter-espionage, and in seeking indictments. But what about groups struggling against their own governments, where those groups have sympathy among other nations?

1. Thai hackers claim responsibility: Hong Kong Blondes satellite group says it made cyber-attacks

   CHAING RAI, Thailand -- A computer hacking group modeled after the legendary "Hong Kong Blondes" now claims -- after its December warning in WorldNetDaily that it intended to hack CNN and other major Western websites via "Denial of Service" methods -- that it is responsible for the recent attacks on CNN.com, Buy.com, eBay, Yahoo!, Amazon.com and other major sites.
   
   In "The Beijing hack attack," a WorldNetDaily exclusive report on the Chinese group founded by super-hacker Blondie Wong, WND reported that a new satellite group identifying with the "Blondes" had sprung up in Thailand. The report noted that the anti-communist hacking group promised to target not only Communist China, but also top Western corporations, including CNN.
   
   The stated purpose of this consortium of hackers: to stop the government of Communist China from persecuting its own citizens, and to protest against Western transnational corporations that do business with China.
   
   While many groups have claimed responsibility for the high profile cyber-attacks and the claims of the Thai hackers may be far-fetched, recent events make the claims of these Far East hackers seem a little less far out....

2. 'Hello Kitty' battles in cyber wars: International hackers sell skills to governments, private sector

   Editors Note: Several months ago, WorldNetDaily international correspondent Anthony C. LoBaido detailed the hacking activities of the elite, anti-Beijing group, the Hong Kong Blondes. In his follow-up, LoBaido covered the activities of the Thailand-based Laurie Holden Hackers, a Hong Kong Blondes splinter group. In this latest report, LoBaido delves into cyber battles raging between hackers, governments and even cults.
   
   Computer hacking activities have increased markedly in Asia as groups of cyber warriors target everyone from communist governments to software consultants to drug-running juntas.
   
   One of the many tools these hackers use, however, doesn't quite fit the mold of 21st century weapon of war -- it's known as "Hello Kitty." The Japanese-created image -- which adorns everything from pencil boxes to noodles to lawn mowers in the Pacific Rim nations -- has spawned a multi-billion dollar empire. So great is the popularity of Hello Kitty that last year, when a McDonalds in Taiwan ran out of Hello Kitty dolls during a promotion, a full-scale riot broke out, complete with injuries and police....