An attempt has been uncovered to extort money from Israeli credit card company Leumi Card. Yesterday evening, the Israel Police revealed that eight people had been arrested after they had tried in the past two weeks to blackmail the company, threatening to expose details of credit cards belonging to some two million customers unless they received a payoff of millions of shekels.
The main suspect in the affair was arrested in Thailand and brought to Israel. Another six of those arrested are former employees of the company, and one is still employed by it. The suspects worked in the company's customer service department.
The court has released the names of five of the suspects for publication: Moti Shilon, Assaf Mor, Elad Abulafia, Avraham David, and Ziv Derin. Their remand has been extended to Thursday.
Two weeks ago, Leumi Card received an anonymous email message in which the sender claimed to hold details of the credit cards of the company's customers. Leumi Card, which is owned by Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI), has nearly one-third of the Israeli credit card market. Leumi Card immediately contacted the police, where the investigation is being conducted in the Lahav 433 unit. The Bank of Israel and the Attorney General were also updated.
Leumi Card began to conduct negotiations with the suspects in order to test their seriousness. At the same time, the company prepared for a scenario in which the credit card details would be exposed, and monitored activity on its cards closely, particularly on the Internet. The suspects did not have the magnetic strips on the cards or their CCV codes, used for Internet transactions, but some Internet sites do not require the code.
The Ministry of Justice says that this is the most serious cyber-crime incident that the law enforcement agencies have had to deal with in recent years, both from the point of view of the complexity of the incident and the damage that could be caused. Leumi Card CEO Hagai Heller said, "It is important for me to stress that there is no fear that any damage of any kind has been caused to our customers. Nevertheless, we are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness, and once the police investigation is complete and we receive the findings, we will draw the appropriate lessons and act accordingly."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 16, 2014
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