14 DAY TRIAL // Van T. Dinh, from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged with two counts of computer fraud after he hacked into an administrative account of a currency-exchange service and transferred money into another one, set up with the same company. The hacker had previously spent 13 months in prison for a stock-market scheme.
At the age of 19, Dinh became the first person to be charged in the U.S. with an identity-theft crime instrumented through computer hacking. Being stuck with $90,000-worth of useless stock derivatives, the then Drexel University student crafted a computer Trojan horse, which he then advertised as a stock-market analysis tool.
With the help of the malware, Dinh captured the login credentials of a fellow stock trader. He used the compromised accounts to buy a part of his soon-set-to-expire options, amounting to $37,000. He was subsequently arrested and convicted to 13 months in prison and three years on supervised release.
It looks like the time spent behind bars had no positive impact on the behavior of the hacker, who, according to Wired, wrote in his journal after the stock scheme in 2003 that, "I am so proud of myself for my 'hacking business' — I will never regret. I am the best of the best Trickster. I laugh often when Mom says she worries... Even if I go to jail — big deal — I will learn something there. Hahaha."
According to the FBI, in December 2008, the now 25-year-old Dinh targeted a New York-based currency-exchange service. After signing up with the company, he somehow obtained the login credentials for an administrative account, which he used to add $55,000 to his own. After a couple of days, he supplemented another $55,000 to his account and used those of two other customers to perform transactions, giving one of them over $140,000.
Dinh is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn without bail, because a magistrate has decided that, due to his repeated actions, he represents a danger to the community. The damage suffered by the company is estimated at only $5,000, because the hacker did not have time to cash out any of the money he illegally put into his account.