Finnish teen sentenced for scamming Malta gambling website

A 16-year old unidentified Finnish teenager and his parents have been convicted for exploiting a glitch on a Malta-based online gambling website to swindle a six-figure sum.

The teenager identified an embarrassing glitch in the software of the website (the website details have not been disclosed) which enabled him to cancel other users’ requests to withdraw the winnings and redirect the amount to his own online wallet.

The teenager was a minor at the time of the incident, which took place in April and May of 2017. Häme District Court slapped a relatively modest punishment of a suspended sentence of 20 months. The court also asked the teenager and his parents to pay the amount they swindled from the website – reportedly €132k and also to pay €3k as legal fees for the gambling website.

However, it is unclear whether the money that ended up in accounts belonging to his parents were included in this sum. The father and mother faced their own reckoning on Monday, receiving five-month and 60-day suspended sentences, respectively, for their role in Junior’s escapades and enjoying the forbidden fruits of his labours.

Dad was convicted of aggravated money laundering and ordered to repay €14,500 that had been transferred to his account. Mom was convicted of simple money laundering and ordered to repay €2,300 and forfeit a motorcycle worth over €5k that was obtained using the stolen cash.

All three defendants have the right to appeal their sentences, but one suspects they are just happy to have gotten off so lightly. The parents are likely equally relieved by the fact their son’s minor status prevents the court from identifying them by name, lest their son’s identity be revealed in the process.

Finally, the casino site is likely content to have been spared the embarrassment of having to cop to the fact that they were taken to the cleaners by a spotty kid who proved a better bug-catcher than their own IT squad.

Source: calvinayre.com