Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges

John Leyden
The Register
Thursday, February 4th, 2010

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, promoted via spam emails, before using identity details submitted on these sites to trade rights to blow-off greenhouse gases on the legitimate sites.

Six unnamed German firms were among the victims of the scam, a new form of corporate identity theft. Illegal transactions have also happened in the Czech Republic. German police have begun investigating the fraud. The EU Commission may also become involved, the BBC reports.

Meanwhile the United Nations’ Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is working with national registries to boost the security of registries and to help develop policies to frustrate similar attacks in future. Short term measures reportedly include warning users and resetting passwords.

Full article here

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