back to article 'Bro delete the chat': Feel the panic shortly before cops bust major online fraud ring

In announcing the sentencing of three Brits who ran OTP Agency, an account-takeover business, the National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed how a 2021 report sent the fraudsters into a panicked frenzy. "Bro we are in big trouble," said Callum Picari, 23, from Hornchurch, in East London, after infosec reporter Brian Krebs mentioned …

  1. cyberdemon Silver badge
    Devil

    Scum

    One hopes that the relatively lenient sentences were negotiated after being forthcoming to the NCA about their 'customers', although i'm not sure that such plea deals formally exist in the UK

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Scum

      I doubt it. "White collar crime" has always been treated unduly leniently in Britain, and having filled up the prisons but built no more, courts are under guidance to minimise the length and number of imprisonments.

      1. Blazde Silver badge

        Re: Scum

        It's the non-violent aspect of it rather than 'white collar' aspect of it. Three near-kids with no previous doing a non-aggravated burglary and netting £100k would probably be given even lesser sentences.

        Rob someone's watch in the street while wielding a knife and the sentencing goes a bit differently.

  2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "The Register understands that the chat logs were swiped from Picari's phone when he was arrested just a few months after the messages were sent."

    Not very good at following his own advice.

  3. rgjnk Bronze badge
    Holmes

    Who were the real brains?

    Either this stuff is truly trivial or they were using product they got from somewhere else, 'cos I'm not seeing this gang of geniuses being collectively capable of scraping together enough brains to sort it on their own.

    And as ever if you're going to do something don't be stupid enough to create & keep a whole load of extra written evidence!

    1. Wang Cores

      Re: Who were the real brains?

      It has to be the same gateway that enables people to get into crypto, just for skiddies.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Who were the real brains?

      Over the years we've seen bigger fish in the cyber-offensive line being crap at their own OpSec.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hornchurch is not in Essex. It has been part of London for decades. Don't brand these criminals as Essex lads!

    1. JudeK

      The NCA has Hornchurch as being in Essex, (https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/website-operators-who-promised-fraudsters-instant-profit-if-they-subscribed-to-illegal-service-are-sentenced), but you are right, Hornchurch is in east London.

      Snaresbrook Crown Court, incidentally, is a beautiful listed building. This vulture used to cycle there on the weekends. The grounds are beautiful and it's surrounded by marshes and parkland. East London can be really nice.

      1. nobody who matters Silver badge

        Hornchurch only became part of the London Borough of Havering in 1965. Prior to that it was indeed situated in the county of Essex, and quite a few people still regard it as such.

        1. Terry 6 Silver badge

          It's a bit like Finchley or Harrow residents who claimed to be in Middlesex, which it hasn't been since well before I came here 35 years ago.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Yes, and they shouldn't. I was lied to throughout my youth, being told I was born and growing up in Essex. I certainly wasn't. It was London. And the Royal Mail specifically requests you not to put 'counties' on addresses any more, just towns. Everyone used to write "Hornchurch, Essex," but that's doubly wrong now. You just write "Hornchurch". Of course, you still get annoying forms asking for counties. Well I pick "London" which isn't a county at all.

          Not that this issue annoys me or anything... ;-p

    2. Wang Cores

      Quality el reg commentard nitpicking. Love it, actually.

      1. JudeK (Written by Reg staff)

        Technically correct is the best kind of correct

        1. JudeK (Written by Reg staff)

          And we do appreciate, you, Anon!

        2. David 132 Silver badge
          Happy

          Hey, how come your first comment above ("The NCA has Hornchurch...") didn't have your Reg badge next to your username? Is it an option that Vultures can disable at will when they want to go plain-clothes?

          We should be told. This goes all the way to the top! I demand answers!

          1. collinsl Silver badge

            They'll never tell - it's all part of the conspiracy, do you see? El Reg is a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Vultures and to this end they're in amongst us, observing how we interact and behave, so they can make their bird robot spies better humans when the time comes to rise up and peck out our eyeballs

  5. 45RPM Silver badge

    From the title I thought this story might have been about the Republican Party.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sigh. Do we really have to bring politics into absolutely everything, no matter how unrelated? It's as tedious as those people who a few years ago were blaming everything, up to and including their skin rashes, on Obama.

      You don't like <political party>. We get it. That's your right in a free society. You're also perfectly welcome to tell people how you don't like <political party>. Just not at every conceivable opportunity, please.

      1. Philo T Farnsworth Silver badge

        I'm a pretty political person but I have to agree with this.

        Not everything needs to be political. Some things are just things to be related and appreciated on their own.

        BTW, I'm not a criminal (I'm just too lazy to go out and commit crimes) but I habitually delete text strings as soon as they are no longer active or of immediate relevance. I just don't like having to fish through a load of random junk.

        1. Killfalcon

          My first phone only stored something ludicrous like 128 text messages. That gets you in the habit of clearing up regularly.

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