Quote:B50m in calls on fake prepaid cards

Police have arrested a hacker who altered information in the database of mobile phone company Advanced Info Service (AIS) and then sold forged prepaid phone cards which were used for calls worth an estimated 50 million baht. Taweesap, alias Phumipat, Lalitsasiwimol, 34, was arrested yesterday at Wong Charoen apartments in Soi Lat Phrao 13.

Police seized two notebook computers, a hard disk, mobile phones, a credit card and passbooks. They also found a copy of a book, Plon Yiab Mek (High-Profile Robberies), in which Taweesap was ranked the third biggest villain.

Police were told by the mobile phone giant in the middle of last month that its card data had been compromised.

AIS acted fast after its officers found that a large number of calls were being made using unregistered cards, and that those cards were of an abnormally high value. The transactions went undetected for almost three months. The total value of the calls was around 50 million baht.

Traces left in the AIS database first misled investigators to examine various internet cafes. They then looked at police records and stumbled upon a similar case of online fraud involving TA Orange, the mobile phone operator now known as True Move, in 2005.

An arrest warrant was sought for Taweesap, who was on bail for allegedly hacking into the TA Orange computer system and increasing the value of phone cards, leading to losses of 105 million baht. The case is pending prosecution.

Police charged Taweesap with forging documents and using forged documents. He denied all the charges.

Police said that instead of setting up a booth selling phone cards, as he allegedy did in the True case, Taweesap posted pop-up ads on various websites offering 100 baht cards which could make phone calls up to the value of 1,000 baht, and 1,000 baht cards which could make 10,000 baht worth of calls.

His customers included phone users and prepaid phone card distributors in Bangkok and other provinces.

Police are expanding the investigation, as they believe Taweesap did not act alone. The True case involved four suspects, some of them True employees.

Police said Taweesap has a bachelor's degree in political science from Ramkhamhaeng University and can hack into a computer system in less than 10 minutes.