Dutch Developer Added Backdoor to Websites He Built, Phished Over 20,000 Users

[LASER_oneXM]

...and here are some quotes from the article above:

A Dutch developer illegally accessed the accounts of over 20,000 users after he collected their login information via backdoors installed on websites he built.
According to an official statement, Dutch police officials are now in the process of notifying these victims about the crook's actions.
The hacker, yet to be named by Dutch authorities, was arrested on July 11, 2016, at a hotel in Zwolle, the Netherlands, and police proceeded to raid two houses the crook owned, in Leeuwarden and Sneek.

Hacks started in November 2014

Police say they received the first tips regarding the crook's actions in November 2014, when a user complained about finding purchases someone else made on his behalf.

Initially, police thought they were dealing with a cyber-fraud investigation. Only after two years of gathering data and after expanding the investigation's scope with the addition of digital forensics experts in the spring of 2016, have they realized the extent of the crook's operation.

According to Dutch police, the 35-years-old suspect was hired to build e-commerce sites for various companies. After doing his job, the developer also left backdoors in those websites, which he used to install various scripts that allowed him to collect information on the site's users.

Victims include both single individuals and businesses. The suspect is under investigation in over 140 cases already.

The suspect remained in jail after his arrest, and his pre-trial proceedings started last October.

 

[AtlBo]

Why? Why? Why? would a developer do something this reckless and dumb? I just don't understand how a successful programmer could allow himself to be controlled by this kind of greed, when programming already pays so well and when programmers are already so in demand.