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<mailto:?subject=A document from
www.cybercrime.gov&body=A copy of a Press Release regarding Orange
County Computer Hacker Arrested In Scheme to Use Stolen Credit Cards to
Make Wire Money Transfers via Western Union (April 18, 2001) is
available by the following link: www.cybercrime.gov/diekman3.htm.
Additional information about cybercrime is available at
www.cybercrime.gov.>
*For Immediate Release
Press Release
**April 18,  2001* 	*/U.S. Department of Justice/* /
United States Attorney
Central District of California
/
/Thom Mrozek, PAO/
/(213) 894-6947/
/thom.mrozek@usdoj.gov/
/www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/
//

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

*Orange County Computer Hacker Arrested In Scheme to Use Stolen Credit
Cards to Make Wire Money Transfers via Western Union*


A Mission Viejo man was arrested this morning on federal wire fraud
charges for allegedly using stolen credit card numbers in an attempt to
wire transfer money through the Western Union Corporation.

Jason Allen Diekman, 20, was arrested without incident this morning at
his home by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Diekman is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the wire
fraud charge this afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

Diekman was free on a $100,000 bond after pleading guilty last November
to federal charges of hacking into NASA computers and using stolen
credit card numbers to purchase electronic equipment. In that case,
Diekman pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of intentional
unauthorized access of a government computer; one felony count of
knowingly transmitting a program, code and command which recklessly
caused damage to a computer; and one felony charge of unauthorized use
of a credit card to obtain approximately $6,000 in electronic equipment.

According to a criminal complaint filed today, individuals affiliated
with Diekman attempted to make three wire transfers through Western
Union. In all three cases, a person telephoned Western Union and
requested that money be transferred to Jason Diekman of Orange County,
California. Only one of the three transfers was authorized by the
issuing credit card company, and that transfer was halted by Western
Union security personnel.

Meanwhile, a national telecommunications company was conducting its own
internal investigation into the theft of its services. After security
personnel from that company reviewed recordings of telephone
conversations in which the callers discussed defrauding Western Union,
tapes of these conversations were turned over to the FBI. On the tapes,
Diekman ? who is identified by an alias he has used in the past and by
an FBI agent familiar with his voice ? is heard discussing with other
unnamed callers the possibility of obtaining fraudulent wire transfers
from Western Union.

The ongoing investigation into the attempted Western Union wire
transfers was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which
received the assistance and cooperation of the Security Department of
Western Union Financial Services.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Arif Alikhan, who is
prosecuting both the attempted fraud against Western Union and the prior
hacking case, Diekman in 1998 illegally accessed government computers at
NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, NASA computers at Stanford
University, and numerous other government and university computer
systems. Diekman, who for the past two years used the nicknames "Shadow
Knight" and "Dark Lord," gained unauthorized "root-level" access to at
least three computer systems at JPL. This hacking activity gave him
control over all aspects of the computers, including the ability to
modify files and alter security on the systems.

The NASA computer systems at Stanford were used to develop sensitive
satellite flight control software used to control NASA satellites. As
part of his guilty plea, Diekman admitted that he caused $17,000 in
damage to these computers.

Federal agents discovered evidence on Diekman?s computers indicating
that he intercepted usernames and passwords from universities, including
Harvard University in Massachusetts. In a statement he made to
investigators, Diekman admitted that he has hacked into "hundreds, maybe
thousands" of computers, including systems at JPL, Stanford, Harvard,
Cornell University, the California State University at Fullerton, and
University of California campuses in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Diekman is scheduled to be sentenced in the NASA hacking case by United
States District Judge Dean D. Pregerson on May 14. At that time, he
faces a maximum possible penalty of 16 years in federal prison.

CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney Arif Alikhan
Computer and Telecommunications Crime Coordinator
(213) 894-2476

 # # #

 

    * *More information on:  Diekman's Sentence <diekmanSent.htm>*
    * *More information on:  Prosecuting Computer Crime <compcrime.html>*
    * *More information on:  Computer Crime Cases <cccases.html>*
    * *More information on:  Diekman's plea for fraud against Western
      Union <diekman4.htm>*
    * *More information on:  Diekman's previous arrest for hacking into
      NASA computers <diekman.htm>*
    * *More information on:  Diekman's previous plea for hacking into
      NASA computers <diekman2.htm>
      *


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Last updated June 3, 2002

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