Fraud charges bring 3 years of jail

Date: May 29, 2006
Source: STUFF
By: CHALPAT SONTI

Mark Hayes thought he had got away with the perfect electronic crime. But he forgot one thing – a piece of paper in his pocket that has ensured he will go down in New Zealand criminal history.

That piece of paper was a ticket he bought to a show in Auckland. Police, tipped off that Hayes was a keylogging fraudster they had been looking for, but needing hard evidence, had finally got enough to arrest him.

Hayes, 19, of Avondale, was sentenced in Auckland District Court yesterday to two years and 11 months' jail on fraud charges.

Police national e-crime manager Maarten Kleintjes said it was believed to be the first jail sentence for Internet fraud in New Zealand.

Hayes used keylogging software to record details of every stroke typed on the computers of Trade Me users and Internet bank account holders throughout New Zealand, using the information gained to hack into those accounts.

Exactly how he did it is still to be established. Trade Me regulatory manager Mike O'Donnell said the software was either downloaded by unwitting computer users in the form of a picture attached to an e-mail, or Hayes obtained information by attaching keyloggers to computers at Internet cafes.
Original article

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