Money laundering money through games

Thanks to the help of a retired "master" in the game, I have the opportunity to approach the world of online hackers, and discover a line of credit theft - buying in-game items - money laundering with amazing tricks .

Blind information is still a thief

The green skin, the big eyes, the crooks, Hoang stalked out from the slums of Mrs. Ba Beo, in a "sharp street" near the National Economics University (Hanoi). In order to create trust with the "Hoang", I asked Hung "old" - a "big brother" of the game village to retire - introducing Nam to "boss", a notorious merchant, and Nam directing. Let Hoang help me enthusiastically. The first time I met, Hoang was quite polite: " Who is the boss who introduced me, I would like to raise both hands to serve the ca. Now go to the restaurant of Mrs. Beo, I will be free (free) for the singer 5. acc (account) in Silkroad online (international version of Silk Road game) ".

With an old-timed keyboard to hand pain, Hoang manipulated with the speed that most professional typists had to offer. It uses full keyboard shortcuts, eyes fixed on the screen.

Great 7 level bar, is ranked in the "crisis" in Silkroad Online

The first thing Hoang did was open the e-mail, which included hundreds of acc "temples" that were bought by him or asked from friends. After that, Hoang opened online payment websites such as paypal, visa mastercard ., in turn tried all the acc to other acc. After about 5 acc first can not log in because of the wrong password (changed by the cardholder) or the account has expired, Hoang assured me: " This time they sent me all acc, up to 60% But I can rest assured, of the nearly 400 acc I have, there are no dozen of them serving my grandfather ".

It added: " Using paypal is easier than visa because paypal only need information about username and password, that is the hacker we have provided, and the visa it requires to answer all the information from the account holder as the name age, secret question ., but that I usually don't have enough ". Hoang also revealed: " Some websites do not accept transactions from IP Vietnam so we also use a software to convert into foreign IPs to be able to trade ".

After about 10 minutes, Hoang shouted quietly: " Here, you die with him ." An account has been logged in. Shortly after, it registered up to 5 characters on the Silkroad game, transferred the money to the supplier and went to the Items Mall (which sold supplies to the player) to buy the astral (increase the success rate when upgrading the furniture. ), items doubling experience points and a monkey picking up items. Hoang gave each item he had just bought to a character who had just registered and looked up to tell me: "It's done, I'll get the pen and username of the characters I have just set up, then transfer the stuff to me (character ) that you want to level up higher ".

I asked Hoang to have dinner, he kept complimenting the delicious food: " I didn't go out for a whole month, eating whole noodles with bread ". Hoang looked down at the tray: " I also planned to do one more month, earn some millions of Tet holidays and then quit, but doing this is very dangerous, I went to jail once, now think of peeling the calendar is shivering " . " You want to get some Vietnamese game, can you help me? ", I asked. Hoang put the bowl on the table, wondering: " Many people put me to do Vietnamese games, but it was dangerous. Making international games shutdown is done, making Vietnamese games do not know when to be caught ".

What surprised me was that Hoang (17 years old) had just finished grade 7, an English word, and a computer term did not know. " All are due to the habit, press something, at any corner, I do not need to know the meaning of that word, I am familiar with my hand ," Hoang explained.

The SOS bow, worth 800 - 1,000 USD, was sold by Nam for Hoang, it played games since 2003, because there was no money to play, Hoang was given a "money" by the Nam to raise money for the whole month. Hoang was then taught by Nam to learn how to register an account, learn how to trade online to use the "temple" acc to buy things in the game. Money stole so Hoang pepper did not know it, ready to spend hundreds of dollars to get powerful character and step up to the martial arts patriarch in very short time.

Hoang opened his wallet to show off: " We don't know a few English guys but everyone has some ANZ, Visa Mastercard . After ordering the item, transfer it to the character like you just gave me, I gave him Nam and received 5% of the money.One acc hack was worth 100 USD, I got about 3-4 USD, I made some temporary living days, Mr. Nam was called "boss" because he worried about the output. For dozens of guys who use acc temple to buy things like me ".

The road into "boss"

Hoang is just a link, the person behind the manipulation of the whole line in this area is Nam "boss".

In 2000, Nam was just an ordinary student playing games with his mother's money. After a while, Nam started to practice trading in the game in the form of C2C (between the player and the player). Men buy from bored people who sell to cravings, gradually becoming an intermediary who always has dozens of expensive items in hand. However, being a trader on such a game does not eat much difference.

Once, through an exchange with a study abroad friend in South Korea, Nam was shown how to use an online (stolen) account to buy things in the game. " But doing so is very easy to sue. When the cardholder feels they lose money, they will be able to track where their money has been transferred. They will sue the game provider, the provider will lock their character immediately. "- with that inference, Nam devised a way to move things into newly formed characters and then switched to the character he was playing.

Having studied and many years of trafficking, Nam understands the risks of doing it directly. And if stealing such accounts can only serve one character in the game. From the idea of ​​making money through the game, Nam mobilized 3-4 disciples like Hoang "coffin", Long "toad", Phuong "bare" ., transferred the money transfer, how to buy from acc "pagoda" already turning them into supply hubs, Nam only consumes stolen goods.

Money laundering technology

Chelsea shirt (about 1.5 million VND), scarf (500 thousand VND price) is transferred to Vietnam for Nam, closed the money laundering stage - Photo: TP

To enhance "prestige" in the virtual world, Nam built a character into "terrorist" row. In a short time, Nam can cultivate his character to become "martial arts master" because few people dare to spend hundreds of dollars to have an item, but he is "carefree" because that money is money. Temple, cardholders have to pay but he doesn't lose any money. After that, with the reputation of one of the "number" horns in the game, Nam offered to sell or sponsor his juniors to sell things. Nam showed me dozens of phone ordering messages from players from Australia, Japan, and Korea, most from China . and hundreds of e-mails on the game.

" How many items do you sell one day? ", I asked. Nam answered: " Also depending on the game, if in Silkroad, one day I sell about 100 items to get gold (gold in the game), then sell gold to other players to get real money. Calculating in USD, some days can be about 200 ". "How do they pay you, can the money be deposited in those cards? ", I just went to the ANZ card in my hand.

Nam shook his head: " How do I put my hand into the cuffs, so I have to fly halfway around the world again ". Nam asked an overseas friend to set up an account with an international payment card. Players who want to buy gold will deposit money into your South account overseas. Nam has a channel dedicated to providing sportswear, electronics . through the person you send back as a gift.

"Mr. Nam has no way of going to the post office. When there are goods, there will be a group of disciples to take them to the post office, take them straight to the address to receive, take money later, " Hung "old", after listening to me, the prize. I like more about the final stage of the money laundering cycle.

Thanks to the help of "old" Hung, I learned the closed process from stealing money from credit cards to branded sports goods. Hung system re-processes: First of all, the guys who steal the credit card password using spyware attack the online sales website or the cardholder's computer to get information, then sell it cheaply (or publish "free" on the web) for professionals who transfer illegal money. For example, Hoang "can" can get "temple" acc on some websites, but up to 90% of the cards have been changed or expired.

Usually they have their own lines, spend a few hundred thousand dong to get a few dozen cards that have been hacked, and then transfer money to buy game support items (the tendency of existing online game providers. Now there is no fee, only selling supporting items with real money. That is stage 1, using "dirty" money to buy things in the game.

Phase 2, the director injects items into new characters and sells to the guys like Nam "bosses" for about 3 - 5% of the true value. Men sell items to other players for gold, then sell gold for only 50% of the real value to get dollars through an overseas account. That money will be used to buy sports clothes, electronics . and then return it by post as a gift.

So "dirty" coins have been washed .

Thanh Phong - Phi Hung