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'Hacker' accused of idiotic plan to defraud bank out of $1.5 million

Home IP, check. Own email, check. Arrest, certain

A newly unsealed indictment has detailed accusations of what appears to be one of the most inept pieces of computer crime in recent history.

Dwayne Cartouche Hans Jr, 27, from Richland, Washington, is charged with computer and wire fraud, as well as money laundering charges, and accused of stealing $134,000 from a bank and trying to get another $1.5m after working out how to game the bank's computer system and a government payment site.

According to court documents [PDF], in March of 2015 Hans set up five accounts at an unnamed bank using his home internet account and giving his home address, date of birth, home phone number, and full name. He then illegally accessed two accounts at JP Morgan that were owned by the unnamed bank and transferred $134,000 into the account.

The money was used over the following month to buy shares in blue-chip companies like IBM and Coca-Cola in Hans' name, to funnel $7,500 into a property investment in New York, and to pay the bill of someone Hans was friends with on Facebook, the indictment states.

Some money was also used to pay Hans' ISP, according to an FBI investigator, and a link was set up between the JP Morgan accounts and Hans' personal PayPal account. The investigator said this was added as another way to funnel funds from the account.

The FBI also claims that Hans went onto the website for the US General Service Administration System for Award Management (SAM), which is used to pay contractors of the American government. Once there, it is alleged that he tried to divert $1.52m from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation – a pension-industry funded operation run by the government – into his own accounts.

Again, this wasn't a subtle operation if the investigators are to be believed. The email address used to gain credentials to the SAM site was Dwayne.hansjr@outlook.com.

Hans was arrested on Wednesday after a month of FBI surveillance and is being extradited to New York for trial.

"Cybercriminals scour the internet for information they can use to steal with impunity," said US Attorney Robert Capers.

"They threaten to undermine our confidence in the internet and in the cyber world, on which we rely each and every day. The arrest sends all would-be cyber criminals a message – we will find you, and we will bring you to justice." ®

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