Many of the articles about Kim Schmitz / Dotcom / Kimble quickly brush over the calling card fraud in 1994. I think it is an important part of the story.
For those of you not familiar with the early 90's phreaking scene, calling card fraud came to the fore as a timely replacement to blueboxing (which the telcos had recently killed off). Calling cards also had a inherent transferable value, so they had the added attraction that you could use them as a means of barter.
A large number of people were busted at the same time (late 1994)(worldwide) for trading calling card numbers that cost MCI, GTE and AT&T millions in the early 90's. I've heard numbers up to $50 million quoted as combined losses. My guess is that Kimble has been on the US Secret Service watch/hit list since 1994 when they failed to have him extradited to the US to face the calling card fraud (conspiracy) charges.
Many of those busted in the USA went to prison. James Lay was the guy that wrote the software to intercept the card numbers at the switch level and then went on to sell on an estimated 60,000 card numbers through a worldwide network of dealers. I think Kimble was one of those card dealers in Germany.
A large number of the accused were barely 18 years old when they were busted and US extradition requests were denied due to their age. The Secret Service busts were well organised and had to be executed and coordinated quickly worldwide (no mean feat). This took a great deal of negotiation with foreign governments and cost a great deal of effort and money. They then had to watch as one by one those accused abroad were given hand slaps, charges were dropped, deals were done, and court cases collapsed or never even made it as far as a court room. That must have been very frustrating after all of that effort.
Many of those busted were thought to have been 'turned'. It was also reported that Kimble 'put himself forward' and allegedly 'offered' to help crack a pirate software BBS group.
Also worth noting is that many of the cards that came into Europe went directly east to the mafias in those new border countries that had previously been the other side of the iron curtain before the Berlin wall fell. Being in Germany (at this time being a EU external border country) meant that Kimble may well have had some contacts in those countries that the BND (German Federal Intelligence Service) might have been very interested in.
For those of you not familiar with the early 90's phreaking scene, calling card fraud came to the fore as a timely replacement to blueboxing (which the telcos had recently killed off). Calling cards also had a inherent transferable value, so they had the added attraction that you could use them as a means of barter.
A large number of people were busted at the same time (late 1994)(worldwide) for trading calling card numbers that cost MCI, GTE and AT&T millions in the early 90's. I've heard numbers up to $50 million quoted as combined losses. My guess is that Kimble has been on the US Secret Service watch/hit list since 1994 when they failed to have him extradited to the US to face the calling card fraud (conspiracy) charges.
Many of those busted in the USA went to prison. James Lay was the guy that wrote the software to intercept the card numbers at the switch level and then went on to sell on an estimated 60,000 card numbers through a worldwide network of dealers. I think Kimble was one of those card dealers in Germany.
A large number of the accused were barely 18 years old when they were busted and US extradition requests were denied due to their age. The Secret Service busts were well organised and had to be executed and coordinated quickly worldwide (no mean feat). This took a great deal of negotiation with foreign governments and cost a great deal of effort and money. They then had to watch as one by one those accused abroad were given hand slaps, charges were dropped, deals were done, and court cases collapsed or never even made it as far as a court room. That must have been very frustrating after all of that effort.
Many of those busted were thought to have been 'turned'. It was also reported that Kimble 'put himself forward' and allegedly 'offered' to help crack a pirate software BBS group.
Also worth noting is that many of the cards that came into Europe went directly east to the mafias in those new border countries that had previously been the other side of the iron curtain before the Berlin wall fell. Being in Germany (at this time being a EU external border country) meant that Kimble may well have had some contacts in those countries that the BND (German Federal Intelligence Service) might have been very interested in.
tl;dr The Secret Service never forgets!
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+ring+leader.-a019474647 http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/business/calling-card-frau... http://articles.latimes.com/1994-11-01/business/fi-57359_1_b... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_Europea... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EU_Enlargement_2004.png