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Lewys Martin was sentence to a total of 50 months in prison. Metropolitan Police

Hacker who demanded Bitcoin from banks jailed for blackmail and child pornography

Lewys Martin was sentenced to over four years in prison.

A 22-YEAR-OLD hacker has been sentenced to over four years in prison for Bitcoin blackmailing crimes and for the possession of indecent images of children.

Lewys Martin plead guilty on five different counts at Southwark Crown Court in Kent and was sentenced to a total of 50 months in jail after the judge ruled some of the convictions were to be served consecutively.

Martin had used a phishing program to obtain customer banking details and 740,000 email addresses before threatening to release them if he was not paid £207,000 in the online currency Bitcoin .

Phising involves contacting users requesting information from them using fraudulent methods, often by purporting to be from a financial institution.

The blackmail threats were made to the Lloyds Banking Group and to the Sun newspaper who reported them to the Metropolitan Police’s Cyber Crime Unit.

Although Martin had illegally obtained the customer data he was unable to access the bank’s computer system.

Anonymisation software had been used to hide the blackmailer’s identity and a sample of the phished bank accounts was enclosed to demonstrate he was a genuine blackmailer.

A complex police investigation was then launched which led detectives to Martin who was then arrested.

Police forensic experts examined a seized computer and phone and identified evidence linking Martin to the blackmail. Compromised personal banking information that could be used in a fraud was also found along with three malware-based phishing programs designed to steal personal details and data.

A number of indecent images of children described as being of the most serious nature were also discovered.

Martin pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced accordingly:

  • Count 1: Blackmail – 27 months.
  • Counts 2 and 3: Possession of phishing programmes and 740,000 email addresses – 27 months to run concurrently with count 1.
  • Counts 4 and 5: Possession of indecent images of children – 23 months to run consecutively with counts 1-3.

Chief inspector Jason Tunn of the Metropolitan Police cyber crime said that the sentence “sends out a strong message that this type of crime is taken seriously”.

Tunn also noted that Martin was unable to defeat the bank’s security systems and used phishing techniques instead, a reminder he said to consumers of being safe online.

Read: Irish CCTV cameras being streamed on Russian site >

Read: Phishing attacks are down, but be careful before Christmas >

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16 Comments
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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 7:32 PM

    That’s the problem with todays media reporting of live events, they are all so busy trying to get one up on the other channels that they don’t think for a minute about what they are saying. Imagine hiding out from some langer trying to kill you only for some idiot reporter to come on air and say “oh by the way there’s 4 hostages hiding out in the cold room”!

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    Mute Lad
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 8:58 PM

    If you can get your hands on “the human face of big data”, there’s an interesting piece on how terrorists use data and how in more prolific hostage taking countries it’s now quite common for live selected killings to take place using human search engines and media outlets for info. Or even waiting to carry out an attack to see who is in their area. Next gen terrorism. Off point but interesting.

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Apr 4th 2015, 12:28 AM

    Its not just a modern thing – during a ground stand-off following an aircraft hijacking (in the 1970′s I think) special forces had approached the plane via a blind spot to launch a surprise raid on the hijackers. Unfortunately events were being broadcast on live radio and the hijackers were listening in and knew exactly what was about to happen, with disastrous results.

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    Mute David Fitzpatrick
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    Apr 4th 2015, 1:35 AM

    Amen.
    What Globalist Murdoch said about the Sydney Siege comes to mind.
    Bloodthirsty vampire.
    http://www.thejournal.ie/murdoch-tweet-sydney-1836603-Dec2014/

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 7:33 PM

    Good move. Hopefully the media will cop on a bit more. If some aren’t making it up they are getting it all wrong.

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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 7:37 PM

    Fox News springs to mind!

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    Mute jenni
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 7:32 PM

    About time the tv media were taken to task, imagine if that lunatic had been watching the live stream and did go down to the chiller they were hiding in…unthinkable acts would have ensued.
    In this day and age you would think tv news channels would have more cop on…but I suppose being more and more sensationalist is worth more than a life in this day and age. How many more lives would have been saved that day if that sick man was not put under the spotlight?
    Its sad really that there is an appetite for this sensationalism.

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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 7:37 PM

    Apparently the gunman was watching but must have missed that report. The cop is to blame here as well as he shouldn’t have told the media anything in the first place. With today’s communications it would be easy for any gunman to have someone else watching TV, twitter etc and keeping them informed of what was going on. Best keep the media away from they area and in the dark until it’s all over.

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 8:05 PM

    I wonder if that journalist would have been so eager to broadcast that information if one of his own relatives was hiding in that freezer?…..I think not…….which just goes to show how little empathy some journalists have with other people in deadly situations.

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    Mute brian magee
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 11:01 PM

    I wonder what nationality and religion the editor / producer : journalist are?

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    Mute Alan
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 8:40 PM

    It’s like that film Night Crawler. Ratings are worth more to these stations than human lives. Check it out. Jake Gyllenhaal is great in it.

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    Mute Rowan Murphy
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 9:15 PM

    I was thinking more about the reporter from Die Hard and Die Hard 2.

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    Mute miserable now.
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 9:20 PM

    Yes. Just what I was thinking. Great movie.
    Some of these”repoters” are sociopaths.

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    Mute Patrick J O'CONNOR
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 9:21 PM

    Look at the way they vilify Israel for its conduct in the war against Hamas terror,though experts in this field attest that Israel took the most extraordinary efforts to keep civilian casualties at a minimum while Hamas used its own people as shields in some cases. But vilifying Israel feeds the Jew-hatred and sells so ‘to hell with the facts go for what sells’.
    See excerpt from Colonel Kemp’s report
    –Three days ago I spoke to an Israeli pilot that told me that the same morning he had aborted an enemy target a total of 17 times because there were civilians in the target zone, and eventually he abandoned the operation. I asked him, was that not frustrating? His answer was simply no. And that to me, is one of the best things about the IAF – that the last very thing they want to do is bomb a target and have that on their conscience for the rest of their lives. And it was the same thing with infantry soldiers. I spoke to soldiers who have been fighting in Gaza, and several of them said to me: ‘We know what the rules of engagement are but even without them, it is always on our minds that we cannot kill civilians.’ See for them, this has nothing to do with orders, it’s just always there at the forefront. We’re talking about [reservists who are] simply artists, metal-workers, musicians, they are not killers. They have absolutely no desire to kill civilians. In fact, in terms of civilian casualties, the attitude of IDF solders is the exact mirror image of the way they’re portrayed to the world.
    http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/30/col-richard-kemp-israeli-pilot-aborted-gaza-strike-17-times-to-protect-civilians-jewish-people-should-be-proud-of-the-state-of-israel-interview/
    Happy Easter All!

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    Mute Elias Khoury
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    Apr 3rd 2015, 10:57 PM

    Truly and accurately stated. You’ll get red thumbs galore, no doubt, Patrick, but that just goes to show that many people don’t like the truth messing up their paradigm.

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    Mute Patrick J O'CONNOR
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    Apr 4th 2015, 2:11 AM

    @Elias Khoury! Thanks for Elias’ sentiment. Your prediction was so but not so bad and some of them even red-thumbed Elias to spite me.Laughable isn’t it!
    I worry not but to speak the truth as I see it. People have a very healthy scepticism about the newsmedia here and it’s just a matter of time before they cotton-on to the con-job the Hamas/PLO and other Jihadders have pulled on them via the self-seeking media.
    Additionally, Jew-hatred is on the wane however imperceptible it seems.
    Happy Easter…

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