A bank fraud

Here is a suggestion with a small twist: Griffin’s occupation is a janitor at a bank. He is one of those non-descript people that white collar people do look in the eye or know their names that work during the quite hours of the night cleaning offices, but at the same time have access to every room, every desk, every computer… (I know there is a bit of Good Will Hunting in being a janitor, but still).

Griffin has taken the job because it allows him to roam around the offices in peace. Long ago he has learnt username and passwords of many people (no hacker skill required, just look at the post-it note under the mouse pad) and can surf the web in peace.

One evening he is walking past the server room he does not get to access usually, when the guy on duty in the room spills his coffee. Seeing a janitor outside, he waves Griffin in to clean while he goes to the rest room to clean himself up.

Once in the room, Griffin cannot resist the temptation and starts tapping away at the consol, the UI still open. Now he has un-restricted access to the whole system.

Just as he is discovering just how invigorating and sweet is it to once again have his hands on a major system, he hears the on-duty guy returning, and has to hurry away.

But he stumbles on some cords on the floor, trips and falls down on the floor. His mobile phone goes flying from his breast pocket and slides under a server rack.

He swears, picks up a broom form his cart and starts fishing for the phone. Two his surprise, he pulls our two phones.

While he is holding the phones, the on-duty guy walks in and angrily demands to know what Griffin is doing.

He is just to protest his innocence, when suddenly the other phones screen comes alive with words: ”Command received, executing now”. Then the screen goes blank.

While they are still staring, all servers go dark. They gasp and start to swear, but then, suddenly the servers go live again (dark only for 2-3 seconds).

Panicked, the on-duty guy orders Griffin to stand aside while he calls the security/police. When they arrive, they identify him as an ex hacker and start to treat him like a suspect.

Meanwhile, the banks IT experts find nothing wrong in the systems, just one un-explained command.

Hearing this, Griffin asks a bunch of intelligent, to the point questions that the IT guys cannot answer. This leads the IT boss to think, Griffin might be able to help.

Soon Griffin discovers the phone is the key and hacks into it.

The phone contains lots of code, meaning of which is not clear. But one thing becomes certain: there are many more phones like this out there.

And that is how the story starts: a plot where the bank is made part of an international scam to quietly and discreetly rob millions of dollars every night when banks reconcile international money transfers – little on currency rates here, little on interest payments here.

The police ask Griffin to help in solving the matter. In due course he finds out the scam spans over many countries, most of the illegal traffic is over hard to detect mobile connections, and everything is state-of-the-art. But the whole construction is also strangely familiar, built in a way that a man he once knew always operated…

The six episodes bounce around different countries; in each a bank and a mobile operator are in-voluntarily involved. Griffin and an Interpol detective assigned to the case get step-by-step closer to the villains, slowly discovering that vast quantity of money is stolen over time and thousands of bank accounts, and that the track leads to a master cyber criminal…