Two Accused of Using Stolen Credit Updated 3:13 PM ET March 4, 2000

ROME (AP) - Tax police arrested an Italian man and his Israeli wife Saturday, accusing them of using thousands of American credit card numbers snagged off computer lists to place $750,000 worth of online lottery bets.

The couple, arrested at their house in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania, won about $400,000 from the betting, Capt. Giancarlo Sulsenti of the paramilitary tax police said in a telephone interview from Catania.

The pair, who allegedly hacked into computers to obtain thousands of Visa and Mastercard numbers, also went on an online buying spree, ordering clothing, watches, "but most of all books," Sulsenti said.

"They set up a library in their Catania studio," the captain said. "There were thousands of volumes, mainly novels in German."

Giuseppe Russo, 34, an electronics system expert, and Croatian-born Sandra Elazar, 33, a linguist and interpreter, were charged with illegal use of credit cards. In most cases, the couple would run about $2,500 worth of charges on each card, the captain said.

The tax police, who are continuing the investigation, said they didn't know exactly how many credit cards were involved, but that they numbered in the thousands. With the exception of a handful of Italian cards, the vast majority were issued by two U.S. banks - Chase Manhattan in Wilmington, Dele., and Citibank Universal MC Card in Columbus, Ga.

"We suspect the numbers were obtained through hackers. None of the holders of the cards used were ever in Italy," Sulsenti said.

The cardholders who noticed charges for purchases they never made all sent letters to their banks to complain, he said.

But investigators in Italy were tipped off by a banking service that became suspicious about bets placed with an online lottery agent in Bergamo in northern Italy. The Bergamo agent was one of the few in the country to take bets via computer, Sulsenti said, and has been forced to shut down.

Without worrying about the expense and playing all possible combinations so as to secure the win, the couple was able to win $400,000, a tax police statement said. The winnings were then laundered through various bank accounts, including some abroad.

http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000304/15/int-italy-hackers-us

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 04, 2000