AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Australian Federal Police - Platypus Journal/Magazine

You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Australian Federal Police - Platypus Journal/Magazine >> 1998 >> [1998] AUFPPlatypus 35

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Author Info | Download | Help

Editors --- "Sentence toughened for man who defrauded overseas customers by phone" [1998] AUFPPlatypus 35; (1998) 61 Platypus: Journal of the Australian Federal Police, Article 6


Sentence toughened for man who defrauded overseas customers by phone

A phone box in Sydney's exclusive North Shore suburb of Avalon was the location for a case of deception where the use of electronic communications removed the immediacy of the perpetrator from the crime.

The case came to a successful conclusion recently when the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions submitted to the Court of Criminal Appeal that the sentence handed down after a man was found guilty of 22 charges heard in the Sydney District Court was manifestly inadequate.

A high school teacher with sophisticated computer skills made 450 phone calls from public telephone booths in 1993 and 1994, his fake American accent riding the telephone networks across the Pacific Ocean to reach unsuspecting phone customers in the United States.

In the early morning hours, Brett Kondratiew, now 38, would walk from his home near tranquil Careel Bay on Sydney's North Shore to either of two public phone booths which he used in coaxing the customers into providing him with their telephone calling card details and account numbers.

He would take with him US phone books and a device which he used to manipulate the local telephone system and obtain free calls.

Selecting American phone numbers at random, he would impersonate a telephone company employee, calling himself Dale Roberts and asking his victim whether they had received calls from the US State of Wyoming. The answer was invariably ‘no', giving Kondratiew the opportunity to assume the role of ‘White Knight', telling them it appeared that the operator had made a mistake with their account and that such a call or calls had been billed to their card. He would then ask for their billing number and the number on their calling card.

When some customers were hesitant to provide the details, Kondratiew would make his request appear innocuous by saying he did not want them to disclose the complete number, that he needed only the last four digits. Feeling reassured, customers would provide the numbers, unaware that Kondratiew was able to put the remaining details together as he was familiar with the system used by phone companies to compile account and calling card numbers.

Kondratiew then used the numbers to make calls from his Avalon home. He avoided being billed for at least 2088 international calls to business and private computer systems in the USA. He would download software, sell it, then sell the ‘stolen' calling card number to other ‘phone phreakers' who would commit similar offences.

Initially arrested on December 17, 1994, he faced 20 charges of dishonestly obtaining by deception a financial advantage, and two charges of defrauding Telstra Corporation Limited. Kondratiew was convicted and sentenced in the Sydney District Court on December 5, 1997 and ordered to perform 250 hours of community service work, 50 hours of which was to be completed at an attendance centre. He was ordered also to repay a total of $51,066 to Telstra and AT&T.

The Crown won an appeal in May this year against the inadequacy of the sentence, which along with the repayment order was subsequently quashed, and Kondratiew was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and nine months, to be served as mid-week periodic detention.

In handing down the court's decision, Justice Hulme said that he wholeheartedly agreed that the sentence imposed in the District Court was manifestly inadequate, making mention that Kondratiew had been selling the calling card numbers and engaging in what was a systematic and calculated pattern of behaviour, and that there was a need for general deterrence [of such crimes].

"The fact that the respondent was able to pursue his course of conduct for four years and others seem able to do so provides some indication that detection is difficult, a fact which provides further indication of the need for general deterrence," Justice Hulme said.

The charges against Kondratiew were brought by the AFP's Eastern Region Computer Crime Team members. Team leader, Federal Agent Chris Buttner, said that the success of the Crown's Appeal indicated that crimes emerging in the field of electronic communications were being viewed more seriously by the courts.

"The Kondratiew case demonstrated a high level of deceit and has serious implications for the victim," Mr Buttner said.

It was very much premeditated with the offender using a high level of ‘social engineering' (a term used to describe Kondratiew's method of persuading AT&T customers to reveal their calling card details).

Modern communication systems provided the opportunity for an anonymous means of communication through the use of looping (diverting phone calls through various PABXs), illegally accessing voice mail boxes and stealing access codes, so that telephone companies couldn't identify the phone being used.

In handing down the Appeal Tribunal's findings, Judge Hulme said that "the respondent was not alone in his interest in some of this conduct".

"In his ERISP [Record Of Interview] he refers to being in a number of groups of computer users who were interested in similar activities. He also indicated that calling card numbers are sometimes freely distributed on bulletin boards available to computer users.

"In response to a number of questions, the respondent stated that he had also entered into arrangements from time to time to supply calling card numbers to other persons for payment of the order of $US100 per month per person. For some period he had not sold any but in the last couple of months before his ERISP he had been looking at selling more cards."

Kondratiew's ERISP said that his reason for reducing or ceasing to sell the cards for a period was that they had become harder to get and were ‘dying'.

The Judge said he inferred from that statement that the card numbers were becoming unusable faster, and people were able to get larger numbers of cards elsewhere.

Although Kondratiew said in his ERISP that he had averaged only five or six calls a day, Judge Hulme said that other answers he gave indicated that he probably made more than 10,000 toll-free calls from his house in the previous two years.

Evidence showed that Kondratiew was engaged in similar activities over a significantly longer period than that covered in the indictment and, although not part of the case before the court, the judge said it was relevant in demonstrating that the respondent's actions were systematic and calculated, and showed a pattern of criminality.

Kondratiew had a message system in place so that he could screen people who contacted him.

"He would go through messages to decide whether to supply message givers, having made sure the people who were asking were people like himself — presumably, dishonest."

Judge Hulme said the facts disclosed a deliberate and repetitive course of fraudulent conduct over a period of almost four years, although it was Kondratiew's actions in only the last two of those which were the subject of charges.

"The course of conduct was carried out by an intelligent man with tertiary qualifications, not from any financial need but because of some degree of obsession with computers and with a view to making some money," he said.

"He was conscious that his actions were criminal and that other people were being caught, but he saw some excuse in that it was only a telephone company that was being, to use his words, ripped off."


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUFPPlatypus/1998/35.html