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For sale: Herman Munster's MasterCard number

ID thieves duped by TV fan

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Software & Security, 22nd June 2007 14:27 GMT

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ID thieves apparently not au fait with US 1960s TV series The Munsters attempted to sell Herman Munster's MasterCard number and personal details in an "underground chat room", AP reports.

The attempted transaction - which correctly gave Munster's home address of 1313 Mocking Bird Lane and a DOB of 15 August 1964, "suspiciously close to the TV series' original air date in September 1964" - was picked up by net security outfit CardCops Inc.

Quite how the overseas thief, known as "Supra", came by the data is unknown, but CardCops reckons it's likely it was provided by a "a Munsters fan knowledgeable about the show", possibly to a phishing operation.

CardCops big cheese Dan Clements said: "The identity thief thought it was good data. They really stumble over our culture. He's probably not watching any reruns of The Munsters on TV Land."

CardCops eavesdrops on underground chat rooms to monitor for illicit trade in stolen credit card numbers and "offers monitoring services to alert consumers whose information is compromised by hackers". ®

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