231 lines
9.9 KiB
Plaintext
231 lines
9.9 KiB
Plaintext
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*------ the \ /
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/ \ files ------*
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Fall/1994 Issue: 16
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The Bust of Mercury (aka merc) + other related busts
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Written 09Oct94 by Invalid Media
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This is the unofficial textfile describing how merc got busted. A
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litte background first - merc was the cosysop of Unphamiliar Territory (and
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ran the board on many occasions when I wasn't up to it), he was also a
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member of "the Posse" - a group which does not exist (its a figment of
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Len Rose's imagination).
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The source(s) for all of this information will not be disclosed and
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real handle's will not be used to protect many people. If I were speaking of
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The Dark Druid (for example) I might say Hacker A. Also please note that the
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source for this information is NOT merc -- he is refusing to talk to anyone
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at this point in time.
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I. How it all started
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Late August, merc was playing around with his lock-picking set and
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decided to go to a bar. He was standing outside of The Dirty Drummer when a
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cop strolled by. He was with non-Hacker A when this occurred. They both
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got questioned and promptly arrested. His truck was seized at this time.
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The morning of September 1st, merc's apartment was raided by many
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different groups which include (but not limited to) Secret Service, Federal
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Bureau of Investigations, IRS, Gail Thackeray (in person!).
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Merc was (allegedly) dealing with the following:
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a) Cellular telephony including engineering phones, making fraudlent
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calls via tumbling and cloning.
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b) Hacking and gaining complete control of many computer systems
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(you know, all those that the Posse are accused of hacking).
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Why was his apartment raided? Well, Gail Thackeray somehow found
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out about his B&E bust and decided to take action right away - plus she
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feared that he would go complete cellular and she would not be able to keep
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track of his activities.
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II. The following days
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Well we all knew about his B&E bust but didn't know anything else
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had happened. I was on irc a couple days after merc's bust and was /msg'd
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by Hacker B with something along the lines of:
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"what the hell is stuck up merc's ass? i called him and say hey and he just
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hung up on me"
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Not knowing anything other than the B&E bust, I just said that he
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was most likely paranoid about it and doesn't want to take any chances until
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things are completely cool again.
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Having known merc for years, I decided to give him a call since he
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obviously wouldn't hang up on one of his best friends.
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RING, RING, RING... "i can't talk to you anymore..." <CLICK>
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This is where I started getting really concerned. After repeated
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attempts at trying to call him and stopping over at his apartment (with
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little to no luck) I decided to give some other people a call.
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Turns out, that same day Neurosis was busted, Mind Rape was visited,
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and Richard Finch (a journalist who set us all up with an interview on KFYI
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radio and who organized many 2600 meetings in Arizona) was also busted.
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We called up Hacker C. He told us all he knew (and it was basically
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information we already knew with the following additions):
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a) merc was under investigation for at least a year
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b) a wiretap and/or datatap has been plaguing merc for at least
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an entire year.
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c) they took fingerprints at merc's apartment
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d) they didn't know much about Posse so they questioned him for hours
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on the subject
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III. Other related busts
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It seems that on September 1st a lot of people were busted. On Sept-
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ember 15th, a "security" user on my board, Keith Jensen of Sprint, posted
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the following message:
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--Begin UPT capture--
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Subject: September 4th
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From: sprinter@gail.upt.org (Keith Jensen - SPRINT)
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Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 16:42:25 PST
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Organization: (Newsgroup) alt.neutral
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September 4th at 4:09p, the Police, Secret Service and F.B.I. stormed
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into the offices of Sprint in New York, promptly arrested me and seized
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all the computer equiptment in my office.
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I was charged with hidering an investigation taking place in New Orleans
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into the escapades of Renegade, Dr. Demonsus, Wiseguy, and Revelation. I
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have never heard of these people so please tell anything you know about
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them. I was allegedly providing them with information they needed to gets
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into TransUnion and Information America through Sprintnet.
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According to them, I also helped them break into Government and Military
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systems to obtain more credit card information.
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They found a RS tone dialer in my office (which was not modified to make
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it a red box) and charged me with possession of a toll-fraud device. I
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have no idea what is going on. My office is still empty and raided and I
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have taken an involuntary month-long vacation from Sprint until this will
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clear up. Hopefully it will.
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They asked me a lot of information about The Posse, my connections with
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8BBS, Modem over Miami, The Phoenix Project, and MOD. I used to call some
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of these boards many years ago but never did anything illegal through them
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and it was over 10 years since I've heard 8BBS brought up.
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A much pissed of Sprinter
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--End UPT Capture--
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There were a lot of posts about Sprinter's bust as well as merc's.
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The following was posted by bobby0 on the general chit-chat forum:
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--Begin UPT Capture--
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Subject: merc/etc
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From: bobby0@gail.upt.org (Bobby Zero - Normal User)
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Date: Sat, 17 Sep 94 10:16:15 PST
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Organization: (Newsgroup) alt.system.news
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Would merc/mr/etc getting busted have anything to do with what happenee
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er, happened to Sprinter? The timing seems pretty close.
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Read this in CU digest today:
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- "Dr. Demonicus," "Renegade" and four other
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hackers used computerz to steal credit card numbers and used them
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to buy $210,000 in gold coins and high-tech hardware, federal
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prosecuters said Wednesday (Sep 8, 1994)
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The nine-count indictment unsealed wednesday charged 5 men from
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Lousiana and one from New York with conspiracy, computer fraut,
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access device fraud, and wire fraud, US Attourney Eddie Jordan Jr. said.
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Some of their hacker nicknames as Dwayne "Dr. Demonicus" Comerger, 22;
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Brian Ursin, 21; John Christopher "Renegade" Montegut, 24; Timothy
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"Revelation" Thompson, 21; James McGee, 25; and Raymone "Wiseguy" Savage,
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25, of Richmond Hills, N.Y.
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.. it doesn't mention phx at all, but I thought the timing was just kinda
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odd.
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--End UPT Capture--
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At this point everyone is scared. A lot of hackers were busted and
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the main thing they all had in common was an interest in Cellular telephony.
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A week after Sprinter's post which set us all off, he posted the following:
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--Begin UPT Capture--
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Subject: my bust
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From: sprinter@gail.upt.org (Keith Jensen - SPRINT)
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Date: Wed, 21 Sep 94 16:32:36 PST
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Organization: (Newsgroup) alt.neutral
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This morning I was promptly visited at my house with one of the arresting
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officers (Richard Dapesio) who apologized for the arrest and quickly
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brought me back all the seized equiptment. They even gave me a check for
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$75 to replace the tone dialer which they took apart and could never put
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back together again.
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I was told that the investigation was regarding only The Posse and many
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people were visited. They told me that they apprehended all of the people
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who they were going to already (on September 1st, my bust came on the 4th
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because it took them a couple more days than it should have to get the
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proper paperwork done). He said they got everyone they were looking for
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except a few who they can't find because they are mobile. The reason I
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was apprehended was because there was some information on my system that
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was placed there by the New Orleans hackers (who are in the Posse group
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he said) and they thought that I had given them access to my system and
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its databases, but that wasn't true. They got in through a backdoor I
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have yet to find. Its running BSD, so if anyone has BSD backdoors please
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let me know.
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Was this Operation Sundevil II? 46 hackers busted in one day. All those
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busted were involved in credit card fraud or (the biggest fear people
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have now) cellular phone fraud. People were using tumblers to make free
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phone calls from their cellular phones and that had to be quickly
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stopped. If you are involved in any way with the following things, I
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would recommend stopping them:
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Cellular phone fraud using tumblers or clones
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Credit card fraud especially from Novell, Microsoft, and other
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giant computer conglomerates.
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46 hackers, 84 computers, hundreds of thousands of dollars in pirated
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software, and thousands of dollars in carding computer equiptment,
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software and cellular phones.
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--End UPT Capture--
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Ouch.
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IV. Conclusion
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Between August 31st and September 4th, a lot of hackers were busted.
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The following is a list and reason (I'm just guessing)
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Hacker Date Status Reason
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merc 01Sep94 Bust Cellular, Posse
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involvement
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Neurosis 01Sep94 Bust Cellular, Making
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redboxes
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Mind Rape 01Sep94 Questioned ??
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Richard Finch 0?Sep94 Bust 2600
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We don't know the current status of merc but he was always a good
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hacker and friend and we wish him luck.
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Invalid Media
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upt@bud.indirect.com
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upt@cyberspace.org
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imedia@tdn.net
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Xenon Foundation (1994) X-Files Submissions to: erikt@arbornet.org
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