Crappy Old Nokia Phone Turns Out to Be Criminal Super-Weapon
By Simon Sage on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 9:46 AM PST In Nokia, Random, Rumors
Huh! Some batches of this old Nokia 1100 apparently has the capability to intercept sensitive banking information sent over SMS, and is fetching upwards of €25,000 ($32,413 US) on the black market. By hacking into particular 1100s pumped out of a Bochum, Germany plant, criminals can reprogram the phone to have someone else’s phone number. The dastardly cyberthieves then scam the victim to send a Transaction Authentication Number (TAN) to what they think is their own phone via SMS, which is actually intercepted and used for a one-time online transfer. Russian, Moroccan, Latvian and Romanian gangs are currently trying to get their mitts on these phones according private investigators, and considering only six months ago the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 1100 was fetching €5,000, the price is bound to go up.
