Calderon orders thorough probe into phone hackers’ operations
March 14, 2007 | 12:00am
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Calderon ordered a thorough investigation into the alleged illegal activities of Manila-based international telephone hackers who victimized at least 22 United States telecommunication firms of about $55 million.
Calderon also ordered investigators to unveil the identities of protectors or coddlers of the syndicates allegedly led by Pakistani national Mahmoud Nuseir, 37, who uses the alias Yusef Shaban and Ivan Mahmoud and carries a Jordanian passport.
Nuseir was arrested together with his seven alleged Filipino accomplices in separate raids in Caloocan, Valenzuela, Parañaque and Las Piñas.
The suspects are allegedly among an estimated 100 Manila-based hackers composed of Palestinian-Jordanian nationals, Pakistani nationals, and Italians with Middle East origins and their Filipino cohorts.
Documents prepared by Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza Jr., deputy chief of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management and head of the PNP Task Force Telecom Fraud, indicated that the suspects started their operations in the country in November 1999 and have managed to perfect the telecommunications hacking systems here and abroad.
The documents stated that the case is described fundamentally as a "telecom network attack." Authorities said over a dozen of US-based companies and business in 14 other countries have been victimized.
Mendoza’s documents stated that Nuseir and his brother Mohamad Nuseir – both Jordanians – were first arrested by joint PNP, Air Force and Bureau of Immigration agents in Sept. 9, 2002 for hacking into the country’s major telecommunications firms.
The documents, however, indicated that it could not be ascertained if the brothers were charged in court or deported to their country of origin, and they returned to the Philippines to resume their operations.
"The group is a transnational organized crime group that is collectively engaged in large-scale telephone fraud, money laundering and possibly terrorist financing cases," the report added.
The report stated that they used PLDT or Bayantel lines for their operations with various dummies as fronts to avoid suspicion.
The syndicate’s hackers loop through the US telephone systems, particularly the giant US telecom firm AT&T, and calls back his own number in the Philippines to stay connected to the phone system.
Once they gained control of the US-based phone systems – one of them known as a PBX looping – the syndicate would make outbound calls from them and could also pass this information to their contacts abroad.
An investigator explained that the modus operandi of the syndicates was similar to tapping a phone line and using it to make international phone calls. The phone service provider would later bill you for calls without you knowing who made them.
"What’s worse is that the syndicate could still sell their system to other phone users based abroad and can carry out the same illegal activities," the investigator said.
Calderon also ordered investigators to unveil the identities of protectors or coddlers of the syndicates allegedly led by Pakistani national Mahmoud Nuseir, 37, who uses the alias Yusef Shaban and Ivan Mahmoud and carries a Jordanian passport.
Nuseir was arrested together with his seven alleged Filipino accomplices in separate raids in Caloocan, Valenzuela, Parañaque and Las Piñas.
The suspects are allegedly among an estimated 100 Manila-based hackers composed of Palestinian-Jordanian nationals, Pakistani nationals, and Italians with Middle East origins and their Filipino cohorts.
Documents prepared by Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza Jr., deputy chief of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detection Management and head of the PNP Task Force Telecom Fraud, indicated that the suspects started their operations in the country in November 1999 and have managed to perfect the telecommunications hacking systems here and abroad.
The documents stated that the case is described fundamentally as a "telecom network attack." Authorities said over a dozen of US-based companies and business in 14 other countries have been victimized.
Mendoza’s documents stated that Nuseir and his brother Mohamad Nuseir – both Jordanians – were first arrested by joint PNP, Air Force and Bureau of Immigration agents in Sept. 9, 2002 for hacking into the country’s major telecommunications firms.
The documents, however, indicated that it could not be ascertained if the brothers were charged in court or deported to their country of origin, and they returned to the Philippines to resume their operations.
"The group is a transnational organized crime group that is collectively engaged in large-scale telephone fraud, money laundering and possibly terrorist financing cases," the report added.
The report stated that they used PLDT or Bayantel lines for their operations with various dummies as fronts to avoid suspicion.
The syndicate’s hackers loop through the US telephone systems, particularly the giant US telecom firm AT&T, and calls back his own number in the Philippines to stay connected to the phone system.
Once they gained control of the US-based phone systems – one of them known as a PBX looping – the syndicate would make outbound calls from them and could also pass this information to their contacts abroad.
An investigator explained that the modus operandi of the syndicates was similar to tapping a phone line and using it to make international phone calls. The phone service provider would later bill you for calls without you knowing who made them.
"What’s worse is that the syndicate could still sell their system to other phone users based abroad and can carry out the same illegal activities," the investigator said.
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