21 Million German Bank Accounts Hacked

Identity thieves who claim they stole details of 21 million German bank accounts are offering to sell the data on the black market for €12 million (US$15.3 million), a German magazine reported over the weekend.

To prove they weren't bluffing, the crooks produced the compact disc containing the names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays account numbers, and bank routing numbers of 1.2 million accounts. Two investigative reporters for WirtschaftsWoche say they obtained the CD during a face-to-face meeting at a hotel in Hamburg with two individuals involved with the theft. The journalists were posing as interested buyers working for a gambling operation.

"We took away with us the first delivery, a CD with 1.2 million accounts, that we couldn't imagine," said one of the editors overseeing the investigation. "In the worst case, three out of four German households would have to be afraid that some money could be taken from their checking account without their authorisation, and perhaps even without their realising it," the magazine stated.

The information was most likely collected from call center employees, the magazine said.

It's Germany's second mega heist of personal information in as many months. In October, T-Mobile admitted losing records belonging to 17 million customers that included their names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Peter Schaar, a government official in charge of protecting personal data, said the WirtschaftsWoche report should serve as a wake up call.

"It is essential that personal data cannot be transmitted with the individual's explicit agreement," he told ZDF television.

If they try to use this as a reason that we should start using RFID chips in every human, (And I'm sure it will.) I'm going to move far up in the Canadian north and live out my days in a hut hunting for food.

RFID chips are bad. If your a Christian then you can believe its the mark of the beast. If your not religious then you can still believe that, with RFID chips, your every action in life will be controlled. I know they have them out there already, and some people have opted to have the things implanted in them. It's not something that can be stopped, with human technological advancement we get closer and closer to being used by someone who knows the technology better then we do.

Bottom line, in an effort to stop the black market and identity theft, you won't be able to buy goods without an RFID. And if your government doesn't like you, your RFID chip gets turned off.

The black market, though illegal and involved in shady transactions (human organs and slaves), is one of the last places that isn't controlled by leaders. Its one of the last free, true bastions for us. The internet would be another. (Though they are trying to control that too.)

Do you have a Chase bank account?

If you do you already have a version of that chip in your card. That "blink" pay as you go thing is the testing ground for it.