back to article Phishers jailed for lifting over £300k from student loan applicants

A UK-based phishing fraudster who netted an estimated £300K by targeting students was jailed for three-and-a-half years on Friday, London's Metropolitan Police confirmed. Damola Olatunji, 37, tricked victims into submitting their banking details to bogus websites in response to dodgy emails supposedly related to student loans …

COMMENTS

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  1. LinkOfHyrule
    FAIL

    HAHAHAHA you suck at fraud!

  2. Bc1609

    Where does the money go?

    Something I've always wondered about this kind of thing, cowdled mommet that I am, is where exactly one transfers money if one has bank details, and how one even goes about it. My bank, certainly, doesn't allow me to transfer money to a new recipient without a phone call and password check. Maybe all students bank with places with papier-mache security, but even then, where does it go? Ukranian PayPal accounts? Can you do that?

    More importantly, what happens to it now? If it hasn't been spent, is there any prospect of recovering some of the stolen funds?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Where does the money go?

      Phishing scams and 419 type scams sometimes go together. Recruit some poor sod who thinks he has a legitimate job receiving money into his bank account and sending it on via Western Union. I don't know if this is the case here though.

    2. Dom 3

      Re: Where does the money go?

      Money mules. You've probably received spam emails recruiting for them.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_mule

      Many banks still allow relatively small amounts to be transferred to other accounts without further checks once you've logged in.

      The 419 isn't really related.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

    3. John Savard

      Re: Where does the money go?

      My understanding of this is that one makes use of a bank which doesn't carefully check that a transfer from a foreign bank has been properly authorized. Banks in other countries basically have to take the word of a bank in, say, Nigeria that it has received a signed document or other legitimate authorization to withdraw money from a given bank account.

      Closing the door on this kind of fraud is, presumably, considered to put too great a burden on legitimate transactions.

  3. Sarev
    Paris Hilton

    Something doesn't add up...

    Perhaps I'm having a blonde moment, but...

    > obtain the login details of 1,300 student accounts

    Right.

    > with amounts ranging from £1,000 to £5,000 slurped from compromised accounts

    OK.

    > convicted of fraud worth £304,000 and attempted fraud of £162,000

    Erm. And the rest...? Why do I get the feeling that the second quote cherry-picks the biggest numbers and is missing the word "some"?

  4. Dave 62
    Boffin

    quick, arrest everyone.

    "he was running numerous computer programs which enabled him to build phishing emails and register fake websites."

    So an internet browser then??

    1. wowfood
      Facepalm

      Re: quick, arrest everyone.

      Was about to post the same thing

      Computers seized from Mwangi revealed he was running numerous computer programs which enabled him to build phishing emails and register fake websites.

      So chrome? or IE?

      I bet he carefully hid his tracks too (using the incognito window)

    2. mike2R
      Boffin

      Re: quick, arrest everyone.

      He presumably had to actually develop the websites as well.

      So a browser AND a copy of Notepad.

  5. Jediben
    Trollface

    The quality of students today

    It's just as well the grants got knocked on the head, else this would be public money on the walkabout instead of those parents whose offspring register at the bottom end of the intelligence scale.

  6. Mr Temporary Handle
    FAIL

    I notice there's no mention of an insider at the student loans company, but I suppose it is possible they were getting the students' loan application details from somewhere else. It's just not very likely.

  7. Dom 3

    Bank LOGON details.

    Bank details look like this: 20-12-34 12345678.

    Bank LOGON details look quite different entirely.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't These People Watch Phonejacker ?

    Please give us account details so we can transfer de monies

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    fools and money.....

    are easy parted.....

    Why is it in this day and age are people still falling for this sort of nonsense. Surely the marks are people who passed GCSE's and A'levels who are off to uni to gain degrees is some subject or another, surely this gives them the brains to stop and think for a moment.

    I mean ffs, I asked my best mate, who I have known for 40 years to tell me his account number and sort code so I could pay some money into his bank account for some crap I sold for him on feepay. He is proberbly one of the most least technical persons I know, but knew enough not to email it, sms it or private message me it on facebook..... even my missus who sticks to a nokia 3310 because she cant use a newfangled smartphone knows enough to ignore requests for login detail confirmations from official looking emails...

    and these people are the the future graduates of this country..... its embarrassing !!

  10. vic 4

    sentences to run concurrently

    What is the point of a concurrent sentence?

    1. John Savard

      Re: sentences to run concurrently

      It avoids putting a frequent shoplifter in prison for longer than a rapist or murderer.

  11. RFC822
    FAIL

    There is no risk in revealing account number and sort code

    "I asked my best mate, who I have known for 40 years to tell me his account number and sort code so I could pay some money into his bank account for some crap I sold for him on feepay. He is proberbly one of the most least technical persons I know, but knew enough not to email it, sms it or private message me it on facebook"

    How wrong he was, then, because there is absolutely no risk involved in send his account number and sort code over any of those routes! The same information is available - along with his signature - on every cheque he has ever written. The only thing that somebody can do with this information is to pay money in to the account.

    You are getting Account information (which does not need to be secured) mixed up with Logon information (which most certainly does need to be)!

    1. Banjo M
      Stop

      Re: There is no risk in revealing account number and sort code

      "The only thing that somebody can do with this information is to pay money in to the account"

      I'm sure Jeremy Clarkson thought this at one point too before he published his account details in The Sun and lost a bunch of moneys. Admittedly there's a lot of information readily available on JC that would make him easier to target but I'm amazed how many of my friends list their DOB and some even their address on their facebook page. Ripe for fraudsters picking.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7174760.stm

  12. RFC822
    FAIL

    Jeremy Clarkson

    All that happened to Clarkson was that a Direct Debit was set up in his name. He could have had it reversed (under the Direct Debit Guarantee), but as it was to a charity, he decided not to.

    There is no risk in making your account number and sort code publicly available.

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