Thieves use Eee PC in Brazilian ATM scam

Man, that tiny Eee PC can be used for just about anything: surfing the web, blogging, surreptitiously hiding inside an ATM machine and stealing your identity. You know, the usual stuff. Yeah, so three creative Brazilian thieves were recently caught stuffing a black Eee into an ATM, where it replaced the ordinary magical-money-making workings and instead stole unwitting customers' card numbers and PINs. The thieves didn't stop there, however -- they purposefully damaged all the other nearby ATMs so that theirs would be the only one in service. Clever! Of course, that doesn't explain why it was so easy to crack open the target ATM in the first place -- we'd pretty much consider our cash flow problems solved if we could pull that trick. Check out the Brazilian TV report after the break -- any Portuguese speakers care to translate?

[carson @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:27PM]

Yeah I dunno if thats what the Eee PC was meant for... it was only meant to play to Doom.

[Curtis the Claw:XBL - supapaypamawio @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:01PM]

This guy is way funny, he said something about Doom! Vote him up to highest ranked right now! Where do you come up with such funny material?

[Mark @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:11PM]

The "Highest Ranked" no longer exists. Sorry.

[Aguiluz @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:24PM]

"The "Highest Ranked" no longer exists."

And also "Lowest Ranked" too.

Man, I miss those. (I also miss me screwing crap up and getting a Lowest.)

[Reader @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:03PM]

Clicking on the date actually reveals the true rating of the comment. Highest and lowest rank still exist there for some reason.

[Chris Macdonald @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:24PM]

I got horribly depressed every time i got a lowest ranked, so I like this new system.

[Jeff @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:32AM]

wow, I'm glad someone pointed out that there are no more "highest ranked" comments. I usually like to browse the comments for those and have been wondering why I never see them anymore. Thanks for the notice!

[nh @ Apr 23rd 2008 4:19AM]

Yeah, I was wondering if the standard of commenting had just declined recently, or if people just couldn't even be bothered to vote on comments any more.

I miss it. It means people who make the truly hilarious comments are lumped with the guy who just said 'assholes' at the Sony/Gracenote news.

And why is it Highly Ranked and Low Ranked?

Why not
Highly Ranked and Lowly Ranked
or
High Ranked and Low Ranked

[Chris Macdonald @ Apr 23rd 2008 6:48PM]

thanks everyone. Thanks a lot.

[Jordan @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:27PM]

Now thats educational.

[StomperGames @ Jul 3rd 2008 12:58AM]

and fricking hilarious

- http://www.stompergames.com

[Kawaiipikachu @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:27PM]

A cute little tiny Eee pc used to do that ?

[JAmerican @ Apr 23rd 2008 1:02AM]

What I wonder is how did it last long enough to scam anyone? I mean the battery life lasts only 2 hours max. Not even for me.

[Garbish @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:28PM]

Take that Apple.

[andres @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:08PM]

what does apple have to do with this?

[lanejasper69 @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:45PM]

I'm not a FanBoy and I have to ask, what the hell are you talking about? This has nothing to do with Apple..???????

Faslane

[AutoTom @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:36PM]

yeah dude, sit down.

[Gonzalo Garcia @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:52PM]

idiot

[Caio Iglesias @ Apr 23rd 2008 1:07AM]

ohhh it's true, criminals never choose apple, that's for honest people only.

[Garbish @ Apr 23rd 2008 2:04AM]

Yeah, that's right, apple users are all honest, angel like things. That's why they sit behind a nice white mac, and tell the world they like whatever rubbish apple makes, but what's hiding on a secret partition or a secret drive????...... That's right, A secret copy of windows XP. Oh, no no. I'm mistaken, they put a 2.6GhZ core 2 duo, and a 8600m GT and 2 gigs of ram in the mac book pro so that you people can use iPhoto.
NO you nubs, it's so that apple fanboys can play crysis.... with their secret copy of XP, and still be all apply and shit at the same time.

[vdogg89 @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:30PM]

I used my laptop to do the exact same thing. I caught my sister's ex boyfriend robbing our house.

[Kilton @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:39PM]

i'm sorry, how is that the exact same thing?

[andres @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:09PM]

use laptop to steal money
???
catch sisters boyfriend stealing money
???
profit

[vdogg89 @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:15PM]

lol, that was the plan

[Reader @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:05PM]

Obviously vdogg has a private ATM in his house, don't you?

[Hammond X @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:53AM]

That's nothing. I used my PC to burgle a bank. I just disconnected the keyboard from the PCU, and threw the PCU through the front window. Nothin' to it.

[Hammond X @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:56AM]

You know, of course, that I meant CPU.

[dvsbstrd @ Apr 23rd 2008 4:36AM]

You threw a processor through a window?

That's either a hell of an arm you've got, or a shitty window.

[Tes @ Apr 23rd 2008 9:29AM]

Basically...what he's saying is he was using the cam on his laptop to spy on his own sister in her room or with her boyfriend but managed to see the boyfriend robbing the house instead.

[haX0r @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:33PM]

Eee....show me the money!

[Danny Ahdout @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:55PM]

dont you mean,
show me the moneee
;-)

[webon @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:33PM]

That was easy how they opened that thing,
when was the video checked?

now I know that if I see some guys opening the only working ATM machine i wont use it... duuh

[sinai @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:34PM]

too bad they have to recharge every 1.5 ATMs

[Pedro @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:36PM]

The video says they were using the PC to do card cloning and that they were caught due to a couple of coincidences.
That Saturday night the bank manager went in and saw the broken door and that only one of the ATMs was working. He checked the video surveillance and called the police.
One of the guys was actually caught when he went into the police station to report a car accident he was involved in, and one of the police officers recognized him from the video.
They later on caught his partners. They already had a police record due to previous bank robberies.

...and it should read "Portuguese"... :)

[Ikari-Kun @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:38PM]

The translations:
1st women
A men goes to the police to make a participation of a traffic accident and gets busted by being identified as part of a group o tempers ATM whit a laptop.
The images are inside a bank and the tiefs chose one atm and damage the other.

Policeman
The police say that they use a magnetic card reader to get the credit card number and the PIN code.

2women
The spot the tempering early by chance, the bank manager sow the door temper and only one ATM working so he check the security video immediately.

Policemen
They catch the thief's just because the agent who help the thief that gone there by because of the traffic accident was the same agent who watch the security tape and recognise him.

[Victor @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:46PM]

you beat me

[w00t @ Apr 22nd 2008 10:21PM]

Thanks for the translation but next time could you try translating it into English? ;)

[TeddyLikesComputahs! @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:44PM]

this certainly has given the EEE pc the edge in this umpc war!

[J.C. @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:46PM]

Rugh translation (part of it):

The bank detected the PC because of certain coincidences:
- the door of the bank had a small damage in it,
- only on ATM was working (because the thieves damaged the other ones so that everyone goes to the one with the laptop)
So the bank director went to see the security tapes, and they found the "problem"

One of the thieves was caught because it was recognized by the police when he went to the police squad ( hehe...ironic...) to report a car accident... and after that, the other one was also caught on the airport...

The thieves wore professional thieves, with previous police records, and of course, they wore using the laptop so steal and decrypt some of the data from the cards so that they could make copies of them.

[Victor @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:47PM]

just because you said portuguese and not spanish:

bla bla bla bla camera show the action ciminals.
Reporter: A smugler gets in, chose an atm to install the laptop, soon another mans shows up and helps to remove the atm's cover. The other atm's are broken so that people use only the hacked one. Bla bla bla
this is the lapotop thiefs where using to steal user passwords
Police: When clients use the the atms their data are stored in the computer. Other suspects later do the reading of this information bla bla bla the rest is the same as in the link, google translate really works


what kind of crap bank is this?

[Aguiluz @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:23PM]

"what kind of crap bank is this?"

Some crap bank which did not bother putting sensors that detect when the faceplate is removed.

It's like having a car alarm without having door open sensors!

[Caio Iglesias @ Apr 23rd 2008 1:11AM]

ABN AMRO / La Salle (in US).

[Chris @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:48PM]

Eeeasy Money!

**Rides off on dirtbike with Guns N' Roses Blaring**

[AutoTom @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:37PM]

fail

[Reader @ Apr 22nd 2008 9:53PM]

His highest ranking disagrees with your statement.

[! @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:51PM]

"..we'd pretty much consider our cash flow problems solved if we could pull that trick."

Ask Charlie Croker and his gang on the set of their new Job..

[ugg.tryptophan @ Apr 23rd 2008 12:20AM]

ILLUSION, tricks are things whores do for money

[garbish @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:52PM]

One of those crooks looks like Dave Chappell

[glmluca2003 @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:25PM]

FULL TRANSLATION:
A Man was reporting a traffic accident to a police station located in the brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, when instead of help he ended up arrested. He was a member of a criminal group specialized in credit card cloning with portable computers installed at ATMs.

The images recorded by the banks security system show the criminal in action. He enters the bank, chooses his preffered ATM to install the laptop computer, some minutes later another criminal enters the bank to open the ATM and finish the job. All other ATMs are also destroyed, leaving only the hacked machine working.
The Police Officer explains that the criminals used the EeePC to store credit card info and passwords, then they would use the data to create fake(but working) credit cards.
But their brilliant plan didn't go quite as expected. The manager of the bank, on a casual visit to his working place, notted signs of a possible break in and that only one ATM was working. Suspecting something he verified the security cam images and went straight to the Police.
The group also managed to rent and crash the escape vehicle, the accident was reported to a local Police Station by one of the criminals, who was soon arrested and identified by the bank's security agents. All the criminals were wanted for previous incidents involving banks.

[Garst @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:28PM]

Now we know if we see a row of broken ATMs and only one working one, not to use it. Not that I ever use ATMs. But it's great to learn cause KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!