But what astonished police was the discovery that the mastermind behind
GhostMarket was not some hardened criminal – but a shy public schoolboy, who
at the time of his arrest had only just turned 18.
Last week Nick Webber, whose father was a senior politician in Guernsey,
pleaded guilty to a series of fraud offences and has been told he faces a
lengthy jail sentence. Webber’s conviction follows a warning last month by
Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met police commissioner, that Britain is facing a
rising tide of online crime.
Today The Sunday Telegraph can reveal how Webber, with a brilliant
talent for computers, transformed himself from failing A level student to
master criminal – and how his developing taste for the high life finally led
to his downfall.
It was on Oct 29 last year that the law finally caught up with Webber. He had
begun living in London’s most expensive hotels, paying the bills using
‘compromised’ credit cards.
He took to wearing designer clothes, posing for photographs with thousands of
euros laid out in front of him or else next to a flashy four by four – even
though he has never passed his driving test.
But while staying in the Athenaeum Hotel on Piccadilly apparently in its
£1,600 a night penthouse suite – with views of Green Park and the London Eye
beyond – the receptionist there became suspicious that an 18-year-old Webber
was the genuine owner of the credit card he was using. Police were called
and duly arrested Webber on suspicion of credit card fraud.
Detectives found on his laptop the details of 100,000 credit cards,
representing a potential loss to credit card companies of as much as £12
million.
They also found business cards Webber had had printed with his online moniker
N2C and GhostMarket emblazoned on them.
Officers from the Met Police’s Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), specially set up
to track down cyber criminals, and who had been pursuing GhostMarket for
some time, had finally found their Mr Big. Except that to their astonishment
they found he was a teenager.
“The receptionist who called us didn’t think this 18-year-old was the
genuine credit card holder. She had this teenager paying on a credit card
for a £1,600 a night suite,” said a senior police source.
“He was moving around five or six high end Mayfair hotels. He had no job
but he had this talent for computers and he used it to create the biggest
English speaking criminal internet forum we have ever found on the web.”
Despite his arrest Webber didn’t stop there. Released on bail, he fled to
Majorca where he continued for the next few months to live in five star
hotels, still running GhostMarket using a laptop and mobile phone while all
the time taunting the police.
“To be a Legend Carder u gotta be a ghost” he wrote on one website,
adding the sign off: “F*** the Police!”
He even discussed on one log the possibility of ‘blowing up’ an officer from
PCeU involved in the inquiry in the naive hope it might curtail his
prosecution.
Webber finally returned to Britain in January this year – it is not clear why
but is thought to be linked to GhostMarket’s operation – and was arrested at
Gatwick airport, eventually pleading guilty last week in Southwark Crown
Court to conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to make or supply articles
for use in fraud and encouraging or assisting offences.
Two older accomplices, whom Webber had recruited online, including a young
woman from Swansea, also pleaded guilty to offences connected with
GhostMarket.
Webber, now 19, was remanded in custody and has been warned by Judge John
Price he faces ‘a substantial period of imprisonment’ when he is sentenced
in February.
Webber’s descent into a life of crime has puzzled his family. He was born in
Guernsey into a privileged background. His father Anthony, a financial and
political consultant, was a member of Guernsey’s parliament for 13 years
while his mother Susan was a senior official in the Guernsey Financial
Services Commission. There is even a family crest of two crossed knives and
a fleur de lys set against a blue background.
Mr Webber, contacted by The Sunday Telegraph, admitted his son – the
middle of three boys – had had a difficult last few years after he left his
mother for another woman.
Mrs Webber, who has since remarried, took her children to England to live,
enrolling her son first at Woodcote House, an £18,000 a year prep school in
Surrey.
In 2005 he moved to the leading public school, Bradfield College, which
charges boarders £9,500 a term.
“He has always been super brilliant at computers but it never occurred to
me anything like this would happen,” said Mr Webber.
“I think what has happened is Nicholas has got involved in using his
skills and he has shown off. He always helped my friends with their
computers.
“I can’t remember when I bought him his first computer but he would have had
computers from a very early age, certainly from at least nine or 10 and
possibly before then.”
Peter Roberts, Bradfield College’s headmaster, said Webber had been “happily
settled” at his school and described him as a “loyal member of the
community”.
Mr Roberts added: “Although no angel there was nothing about his
disciplinary record at Bradfield to suggest any cause for concern for the
future.”
From Bradfield, Webber enrolled in September 2008 at Havant College, a state
sixth form college, near his mother’s home in Southsea in Hampshire.
He was studying four A-levels, including computing and information technology.
But with his mother suffering a serious illness and his father largely
absent from his life, police believe Webber began dabbling in fraudulent
credit cards and then looked to the internet to see how he could ‘develop
his talent’.
Finding no English-language crime forum available, Webber started his own,
using his computer hacking and internet design skills – some self-taught;
some learnt at school. Astonishingly, the website gathered momentum.
It had a sophisticated design and even a kind of mission statement on its
front page which promised: “A committed website for Carders” – a
reference to credit card fraud – and followed by “A new era to
virtual marketing.”
Webber had set up five different categories or menus on GhostMarket. One was
for general computer hacking; another for stolen and compromised credit
cards; a third for banking fraud and a fourth for ‘other’ criminal
activities such as how to make the illegal, highly addictive drug crystal
meth.
A fifth forum was a private trading area which criminals could access and do
deals such as selling credit card details hacked via the internet.
Webber oversaw it all. “He was facilitating a supermarket site for
criminals,” said the police source, “He was about 17 when he
started it, at about the same time he left boarding school. He began small,
inviting in friends. But over a period of 18 months it got up to 8,500
members.
“Although he was in many ways just a normal teenage kid – he wore jeans;
he was pretty shy – he also showed a remarkable level of maturity to be able
to run this website. He had this online persona that was pretty arrogant. In
GhostMarket he was the king. It was his empire. But in real life he wouldn’t
say boo to a goose.”
With GhostMarket up and running, Webber had begun skipping his studies at
Havant College. By Oct 2009, a week or two before his arrest Webber was
asked to leave because his attendance record was so poor. “Nick was a
reasonably able student who lacked the commitment to pursue his studies
seriously,” said Havant’s principal John McDougall.
With his mother ill – she attended court last week in a wheelchair – Webber
left home, using credit card details stolen or copied from the internet to
fund an increasingly lavish lifestyle.
He began spending a small fortune on designer clothes or else gadgets,
including buying new and more powerful laptops.
The business cards he had had printed with his online moniker N2C were a sign
of his growing confidence – what his father calls ‘bravado’ – but finally
led to his downfall.
“What happened to Nicholas has been a big shock to both his mother and to
me,” said Mr Webber, “In a very short period of time things went
wrong. He is a delightful son in a lot of respects.
“He is very sporty and very loving. He is generally a very good mannered
person but quiet by nature.
“He was never flamboyant except that in the last couple of years this
bravado side has come out. I just wish I had been in a position to have some
positive influence.
“He is the sort of person that the security services should be employing. His
skills are such he could do a lot of things but the very sad thing about
this is it is going to affect his future career.”
Category: Cyber Crime
Article source: http://nationalcybersecurity.com/?p=41243
