'Israeli contacted Arab hacker, used credit cards'

Police: Teen used credit card numbers published on the web by hacker OxOmar to buy goods.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, MELANIE LIDMAN
Hacked 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Hacked 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
More than a month after the Arab hacker “0xOmar” published tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers on the Internet, and said others should use the information for illegal shopping sprees, police in Jerusalem said Wednesday that an unlikely individual answered his call.
A 15-year-old Jew was arrested in the capital on Tuesday on suspicion of using credit cards leaked by the Saudi hacker to purchase electronics on the Internet.
“He got hold of a number of Israeli credit cards and used them to buy computer equipment. He also booked a holiday in Israel, and one overseas, after he received an e-mail from 0xOmar,” Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The purchases were made soon after the credit card numbers were published, before credit companies were able to cancel all of the affected cards.
The suspect’s attorney said his client was a teenager who was not fully aware of the significance of his actions, but police suspect he is a Internet-savvy individual who knew what he was doing.
The teenager allegedly contacted the hacker over the Internet and asked for some of the credit card numbers.
The hacker then sent four credit card numbers, and the teenager used two of them to buy tens of thousands of shekels worth of electronics online, according to police. The electronics were delivered to a post office in the Givat Shaul neighborhood.
Police opened an investigation after the credit card companies filed complaints of suspicious usage.
Police arrested the teenager on Tuesday in his house. Some of the electronics he ordered using the stolen credit card were in the house, and some he had already sold.
Police also arrested the boy’s mother, who they believe was involved in some of the purchases.
The teenager was detained until 8 p.m. on Wednesday, after which he was released to house arrest until Sunday. He is also forbidden from contacting any of the people he sold the electronics to online.
His mother was also released to house arrest.