Londoner accused of accessing National Lottery users' accounts

A man will appear at Crown court in December to answer charges that he used hacking program Sentry MBA to access and take money from online UK National Lottery gambling accounts. Prosecutors claim that 29-year-old Anwar Batson gained access to National Lottery users' accounts in November 2016, having downloaded hacking tools …

[Claverhouse]

...as well as using credit card details to buy North Face clothing for himself.

A man of wealth and taste...

[simonlb]

Someone else's wealth, but definitely no taste.

[Killing Time]

He has a clear defence

Who in their right mind would buy North Face gear?

Poor man, how tragic...

[Charles Calthrop]

Just googled lancaster road

Nice place.

[Buzzword]

Batson is innocent unless found guilty.

As always, right? Or has something changed recently?

[phuzz]

Re: Batson is innocent unless found guilty.

I think elReg wanted to remind us of that, so they don't have to block as many comments.

As this is an ongoing trial, and elReg is a British based publication, they have to make sure us commentards don't say anything libellous, and I think their mods take a "block first" line.

[John G Imrie]

Re: Batson is innocent unless found guilty.

I wonder if I can get a petition going on the government web site to have <defendent name> is innocent unless found guilty displayed at the end of every court report and said after every TV report.

[MiguelC]

"The accused, wearing a plain white shirt buttoned at the collar and with his long hair slicked back into a ponytail"

Now, could you please elaborate in what <see icon> way is that relevant?

[Rol]

He has a ponytail FFS!

Quite clearly his defence is looking to mitigate on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

[Cederic]

It suggests he doesn't own a suit but knows better than turning up to court in a string vest looking like he's been dragged through a hedge backwards.

It's a single line that adds a little detail, some colour to the story, humanises it, gives you more of a sense of the person.

Me, I'm more intrigued that he had to confirm his nationality. Is this normal? Are the laws on online fraud different if you're not a native?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hippies! Everywhere! Causing all the problems for everybody!

I bet they're even hiding under my bed.

Don't worry, I can smell them. Those dirty, filthy, pot-smoking hippies.

I'm sorry, I appear to have forgotten what my point was.

[Aussie Doc]

Hippies?

Oi! I resemble that comment.

Look a bit like him, now, though --->

[jmch]

I believe that since photos are not allowed in court, it is customary in reporting of court proceedings to describe the defendent, including attire etc.

You are right it is completely irrelevant

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, wrote the El'Reg commenter.

Sat in his office wearing a yellow t-shirt, black trainers, black jeans and black mens pants inside out as the seam rubs his bits the wrong way when they are on normally.

[hplasm]

Now, could you please elaborate in what <see icon> way is that relevant?

El reg does not have a sketch artist, you see...

[Richard IV]

Sketch artistry

They used to. One L.Haines esq. (see https://www.theregister.co.uk/Tag/Playmobil)

[Andy The Hat]

Which is it?

Slow news day:

"Man accused of hacking so badly he could only afford a North Face hoodie. Only the data of the sad people that still do the lottery was at stake"

Faster news day:

"Man accused of hacking National Lottery database. Was National Lottery database left open to the web? Has there been a massive data breach of personal data? Is it a GDPR violation so National Lottery could get fined £squillion?"

[Commswonk]

WTF..?

...the white-haired chairwoman of the bench...

And the relevance of that comment is what exactly?

[Khaptain]

Re: WTF..?

She might be a relation to Julian Assange..

[Happy Ranter]

Re: WTF..?

Apparently, its a fashion statement, my 18 year old niece has white hair as well but she is not a magistrate

[Anonymous Coward]

literally a hotpick

[Duffaboy]

No case to answer M'lud

Unless he is found guilty of stealing your Free goes he has no charges to answer. All I seem to get is from the National Lottery is "Exciting news about your ticket" "you've won a free go!" broadly translated as "you've won naff all, we will cash your cash next week"

[Anonymous Coward]

Hacking program used to hack online UK National Lottery

A quick googleing tells me that 'Sentry MBA' is a credential stuffing utility, as in it repeatedly try's to log-in using a list of potential passwords. In this day-and-age, I would have thought the Lottery website had taken steps to prevent this sort of thing, such as only allowing three bad logins in any one hour.

[Cynic_999]

How could he have stolen anything?

In my experience you can only transfer the money in your online account into the same real-World account that you pay with. Some time ago I changed the card I used to pay for the online lottery, and before they would accept the new form of payment I had to withdraw all my (small) balance into my previous card's account. I was told that this was to prevent a crook accessing your account and changing the card in order to withdraw the money into their own account.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How could he have stolen anything?

As this happened 3 years ago, perhaps they have changed their systems since perhaps even in response to this issue....

[Cynic_999]

Re: How could he have stolen anything?

"

As this happened 3 years ago, perhaps they have changed their systems since perhaps even in response to this issue...."

Nope. My experience was well over 3 years ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Downloading hacking tools...

Is that illegal now?