Carbon trading fraudsters steal permits worth £2.7m in 'phishing' scam

carbon trading
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Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

Hundreds of thousands of carbon trading permits have been stolen from companies in Germany and the Czech Republic by fraudsters who duped companies into giving their details via a fake website.

Around 250,000 permits worth €3m were stolen from six companies in Germany in last week's "phishing attack", which was first reported to the German national carbon registry on Friday. Permit trading on the German registry was closed immediately but reopened today.

Phishing attacks are similar to online banking scams, in which users are sent emails asking them to enter their details on a facsimile of a website.

Hans-Jurgen Nantke, the head of the German emissions trading authority, said that users had been warned and new passwords set. But he added it would be impossible to track the European emissions trading scheme permits as they would have been traded soon after they left the companies' accounts and changed hands several times since.

He said: "It's not a problem of carbon trading, it's a problem of the internet. The phishing attacks on banks has now spread to carbon trading. The phishers have already earned their money so we can't do anything about the permits. The problem now is to find the culprits and that's police a matter."

Nantke stressed that the German carbon register DEHSt was safe, adding that it has 2,000 companies and only seven were affected. But European carbon trading authorities have not yet confirmed how many companies were affected across Europe.

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Vote: +3

"In my opinion this is not surprising and is not the last time we are going to see something like this happening. While the internet is a great tool, it is also a great way to steal identities and other useful information at a cost to everyone who uses the internet. Like so many other things we have become so desensitized by everything that we don't take precautions and trust anyone we meet who says they are someone that sounds like they are important and knows what they are talking about. It is as much our own faults to give out our information to just anyone who sounds like they know what they are talking about as it is the fault of the internet.

WE have to learn to be much more vigilant and even suspicious of anyone we don't know as well as those we think we know when it comes to giving out our own personal information. And companies that sound like they are too good to be true are usually just that, too good to be true. We have to learn to put up the right parameters when we set up organizations so that they cannot be broken into and make sure they are secure. There will always be someone out there that will try to break into any organization which has something they can steal and get away with."

By: candeeb :: 2 years ago

Vote: +0

"@candeeb, I agree with you in general. however I would apply cantion with your suspicion. Suspecting everybody around you is not a way of living. With regards to the companies though I would agree though. Through very clever green advertising and PR, companies can spin their status and make people believe what they want about their green credentials. I am all for more stringent rules and quotas."

By: greenvoice :: 2 years ago