Hacker victimizes Bill Gates

March 26, 2000

BY RAJEEV SYAL LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

A British teenager, arrested after an FBI investigation into international computer hacking, says he obtained the credit card number of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, the world's richest man.

Raphael Gray, 18, is accused of breaking into 23,000 computerized credit card accounts, many of which belonged to Americans, the FBI said. Gray and a friend were arrested Thursday in the village of Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

The hacker said he sent Gates' credit card details, along with the other credit card numbers, to NBCi, a subsidiary of the American broadcasting group.

"I just wanted to prove how insecure these sites are," said Gray, working under the name "Curador," which means custodian in Welsh. "I have done the honest thing and told these sites that I have been able to access this sort of sensitive information but I have been ignored. That's why I posted the information on the Internet."

Both Gray and a second 18-year-old who has not been named were held for questioning for 12 hours before being released on bail.

Gray began his spree six weeks ago, finding his way into e-commerce sites in the United States, Canada, Britain and Thailand.

He knew he had been tracked down while online with a site in Canada. The company involved contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and as a result of their investigation, the FBI, Interpol and British police became involved.

An FBI officer flew from Philadelphia to crack what was believed to be an Internet criminal gang. Instead authorities found Gray using a laptop worth about $1,000.

"I knew the man was from the FBI because he spoke with an American accent and was wearing a trench coat," Gray said. "There were eight local police officers in a riot van with him so it was an unusual sight in Clynderwen."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/hack26.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 26, 2000