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British police arrest three after virtual bank robbery

23-08-2000 9:28am

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MiCr0

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Join Date: February 1998

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from ireland.com

British police have arrested three men suspected of having mounted a cyberspace robbery of a UK Internet bank, stealing many thousands of pounds in what is thought to be a new tactic for organised crime.

Details of the name of the bank or the amount of money stolen have not been released, but a source familiar with the investigation identified the bank as the newly listed Net bank Egg Plc.

A spokeswoman for Egg declined today to comment on the arrests. Shares in Egg, which says it has 1.1 million customers, fell two percent in early trading yesterday to 146 pence.

Officers of the National Crime Squad made the arrests yesterday morning during a raid on seven addresses northwest of London. The swoop followed a six-month investigation which began with a tip-off from the bank concerned.

The three men arrested were all in their 30s. Police confiscated computer equipment, documents, cash and drugs during the raid, a police spokeswoman said, but it was unclear today if charges had been laid overnight.

"This obviously is a very new area criminals are getting into, and expanding into, so it's something in which we have really got to keep one step ahead of them," British National Crime Squad spokeswoman Judi Prue said..

The break-in follows a string of security concerns about Internet banking in the UK. In July, Barclays Plc briefly shut down its Net banking service after a glitch in new software allowed some users to see other customers' accounts.

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