Sunday, February 07, 2010



Phishing Scam Cripples European Emissions Trading


...
Accounts Were Suspended

The crime has hampered the registering of trades in allowances across a wide swath of the European Union. Although allowances can still be traded on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) or via brokers, it is currently not possible to register the trades with the DEHSt, as is required by law. The Potsdam-based authority suspended the registering of transactions last Friday, and a spokesperson told the Financial Times Deutschland that the suspension would continue "at least for the rest of this week."

On Tuesday, the DEHSt's sister authorities in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria were also closed in reaction to the scam. Authorities in Norway, Austria and the Netherlands had reacted more quickly last week, suspending access to accounts within hours of the scam becoming known. They were able to reopen their databases Tuesday.

The source of the attack was unclear, as was the extent of the damage caused by the crime. The newspaper analyzed a sample of several dozen transactions carried out in Germany and discovered nine cases of fraud. If the criminals are not found, the companies will have to cover the costs themselves. The newspaper wrote that one medium-sized German company alone had lost allowances worth €1.5 million ($2.1 million).

Under the EU's Emission Trading System, companies which are large emitters of greenhouse gases are required to have enough of the so-called allowances, which are issued by national authorities such as Germany's DEHSt, to cover the CO2 they release each year. Firms are free to trade their credits, which allows companies that have more of the rights than they actually need to sell them on to concerns that want to emit more CO2 than they are allocated. The idea is to use market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as the scheme gives firms an economic incentive to cut their CO2 production.

... Internet and money don't get along too well ...
... this are issues that should be solved with the duck feather ...





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