Money heist? Hungarian teen hacker stole millions of forints

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Hungarian police arrested two hackers who used phishing to access online payment systems and steal millions of forints, according to police.hu.

Among the victims were a computing devices web shop and the operators of the SimplePay and Paypal interfaces. Police investigators raided the homes of two males, a 17-year-old from Hajdú-Bihar County and a 21-year-old from Csongrád-Csanád County, and confiscated all their computer equipment. Police allege the two suspects started making money illegally at the beginning of last year.

Having got hold of the data of various PayPal and SimplePay accounts, the suspects used the accounts to order various products online from the computing shop. A parcel service delivered the products to a specified address before the hackers phoned the online payment operators claiming to be the owner of the relevant account who was a victim of fraud.

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PayPal and SimplePay lock the payment in the accounts until the packages are received, so when they were notified of the fraud the amount was transferred back to the account number held by the hackers. This way, the suspects not only got hold of the money but the product too, the police said.

The suspects then conducted any further transactions anonymously in cryptocurrency. Police are investigating the possibility the charged may have had accomplices, police.hu said.