An African hacker, Eric Donys Simeu, 32, of Cameroon pulled
off a massive phishing scam that saw him making off with over $2m
(£1.38m) worth airline tickets. According to the US Justice Department,
Simeu sent out numerous targeted phishing emails between July 2011 and
September 2014 to employees of various air travel firms.
The emails were specifically sent to impersonate official
communications, in order to trick the victims into opening fake websites
and logging in with their official details. The hacker targeted those
employees with access to GDS (Global Distribution System) network, which
is generally used by air travel and tourism firms to access airline
severs to buy or sell flight tickets.
According to the US officials he obtained the GDS
login credentials for two companies which includes one from Atlanta,
Georgia, and another from Southlake, Texas. After logging into the GDS
network he issued numerous airline tickets, which he either used for his
personal travels or resold to customers in West Africa at a fraction of
their real price.
Simeu was arrested by the French police in September
2014 when attempting to use one of his own fraudulent air tickets to
travel from Casablanca, Morocco, to Paris. The US finally extradited
Simeu and the case is still being investigated by the FBI and the
Justice Department.
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