TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Miami Man Arrested for Hacking Web Phone Services

Miami Man Arrested for Hacking Web Phone Services

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Thu, 8 Jun 2006 12:02:14 -0500

The FBI arrested a man in Miami on Wednesday for allegedly hacking the
networks of Internet telephone service providers to fraudulently sell
more than 10 million minutes of calls, federal authorities said.

FBI agents early Wednesday executed nine search warrants in six states
related to the case, and arrested Edwin Andres Pena in one of his
Miami residences, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said in a
statement.

Pena, a legal U.S. resident from Venezuela, received more than $1
million through a scam that provided his customers deeply discounted
telephone rates, a two-count complaint filed on Tuesday in
U.S. District Court in New Jersey said.

Pena was expected to appear before a magistrate judge in Miami federal
court on Wednesday, Christie said. The complaint charged him with wire
fraud and a computer hacking violation from November 2004 to about
May.

Pena secretly hacked into the computer networks of unwitting Internet
telephone services, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP),
Christie said. The complaint charged only Pena, but he enlisted the
help of others, including a professional hacker in Spokane,
Washington, he said.

A Newark, New Jersey-based company, which transmits VoIP services for
other telecom businesses, was billed for more than 500,000
unauthorised telephone calls.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew.)

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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