back to article Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges

Phishing fraudsters have extended their net beyond harvesting e-banking credentials via a scam that resulted in the theft of 250,000 carbon permits worth over €3m. The outbreak of fraud resulted in the suspension of trading in several EU registries on 2 February. The crooks are thought to have created fake emission registries …

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  1. Tim #3

    And the consequences are....?

    Are there any real victims to this crime? Carbon trading is a made up world, invented to address climate change that may not be happening, and if it is happening may not be caused by carbon, and if it is caused by that then that carbon may not be man made, and if it is man made carbon that's causing it then carbon trading may not reduce the emissions of it.

  2. Tom 35
    Pirate

    The Sting

    Reminds me of the movie "The Sting".

    Carbon trade scam ripped off by other scam artists.

    Is that Scott Joplin I hear playing in the background?

  3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    Carosel fraud is *not* committed by rogue states

    Why should this be? It represents another form of cash, albeit a pretty esoteric form (at present).

    if people in the EU are smart enough to devise carosel VAT fraunds (and they have been around since at *least* the 1970s) why would'nt some of the more cutting edge fraudsters think about this.

    "Corporate ID theft." That must hurt. I bet they won't take that lying down. Unlike the rest of us.

  4. AndrueC Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Scammers have been scammed?

    What goes around comes around.

    You fool people into thinking that carbon trading will have a beneficial effect on the environment. Now someone fools you with a Phishing expedition.

    Ho hum.

  5. Elmer Phud
    Flame

    Not entirely upset

    Seeing as 'carbon trading' has only two uses -- make load sof dosh for someone and shift the shit and blame elsewhere, I'm not too upset at the plightnof those who can afford to emulate the Lord of the Manor. In fuedal times the villagers had to pray for the local lord and family to ensure tier passage in to heaven while washing thier hands of any misdeeds. Those who would have us believe they are caring for the environment by flying around the planet and then paying for their carbon use to be off-loaded deserve any/ all the shit that comes thier way. The same goes for companies who find it cheaper to off-load thier responsibilites than install proper carbon-reduction schemes or refuse to cut down on corporate flights.

  6. The Cube
    Grenade

    Carbon trade scam?

    Oh, actually a scam, I read the title and thought the article was going to be about the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment legislation that was approved without debate in the house last week.

    I see that you have written about a different scam perpetrated by a different bunch of criminals though...

  7. The Dorset Rambler
    WTF?

    Is this a trend?

    Nobody seems to get 'hacked' anymore. They are 'targeted by rogue states". So not our fault guv.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re: "rogue states that reject rules-based international trade"

    Like the USofA

  9. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    "This happens to banks about once or twice a month. And this is the same sort of thing...."

    So why the F**K didn't you consider that before introducing this silly scheme with great big security holes in it??

  10. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Like you, I don't have children

    And therefore do not care whether the world continues to exist after I die.

  11. Sergie Kaponitovicz
    Thumb Up

    Just for once...

    .... I am on the side of the e-vermin. Anything that exposes the man-made CO2 Climate Change mantra being hi-jacked by politicians to raise 'green taxes' as a load of bollocks, gets my support.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      wat

      Exposes how?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Ingenious

    Cap and trade is an ingenious scheme to reduce CO2 on a global level at the lowest price. That is smart and immeasurably better than taxes directly to the Treasury coffer, and nothing wrong with incentivising markets to get involved in reducing pollution, actualy a brilliant concept and it DOES work well contrary to all you sheeple reading / listening to UK "madia" (mis-spelling intentional).

    Unfortunately where there is money there are criminals. Whether carouselling the ETS or cigarettes or booze or whatever, makes no difference and is nothing to do with the product but the lack of joined up thinking by unelected EU officials. Almost serves them bloody right - not condoning it, but just a perverse bit of schadenfreude.

    Where's the green CO2 icon? Will use this one instead.

    1. Tom 35

      Fixed it for you...

      Cap and trade is an ingenious scam to pretend to reduce CO2 on a global level at the highest profit.

      It's a money for nothing scam right up there with naked short selling.

      Feeling a little guilty about your corporate jet? I can sell you a bit of paper that makes it carbon neutral. We paid some dirt farmers in Africa not to fly around so that you can.

  13. oereye

    rogue states or scam-ridden system?

    This looks more Laurel-and-Hardy style cock-up than international "rogue state" conspiracy - UK Press Association is reporting it was just a click through to a spoof site, while the graphic that McAfee use from the Europol report refers to a slightly different kind of fraud. Beyond that, the more fundamental problem is that carbon trading renders a whole set of incommensurable practices equivalent in order to make a single tradeable commodity, to the point that it is highly unclear what is being traded (see www.carbontradewatch.org/carbon-trade-fails). That's why the resulting system is a scammers' paradise.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rogue States

    It does look like malware and phishing are being tarted up as the next WMDs.

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