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Chinese teen swipes USD150,000 after hacking Chinese airline website
Thursday, 18 Dec, 2015
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A Chinese teenager has been arrested for an elaborate hacking scheme which pocketed him 1.1 million Yuan (about US$150,000) from a Chinese airline’s website.
A 19-year old named Zhang hacked the website of an unnamed Chinese airline and stole information from about 1.6 million bookings including names, passwords, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers.
He allegedly cancelled live bookings and contacted affected customers to rebook, giving a bogus rebook link where he pocketed the fees.
The fraudulent action took place between July 31 and August 20, police said.
Authorities eventually tracked Zhang down last month and arrested him in Dalian, North China.
"The suspect coded the hacking software himself," a police spokesman said, and the hack was aided by the airline website’s lax security protocols
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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