A Norwegian Internet radio site has been shut down pending an FBI investigation of a possible attempt to swindle customers of the eBay Web auction house, the company hosting the site said Wednesday.
"EBay had found a possible swindle attempt, and contacted the FBI. Then they contacted us, and we shut down the account immediately," Trond Didrichsen, of the site host lettnett.no, said by telephone.
Neither the operators of the NordicRadio Internet site, which was closed Tuesday, nor the Web host company were suspected of direct involvement in attempted fraud. However, Didrichsen said one member of the NordicRadio staff was being investigated by the FBI.
The fraud attempt involved copying eBay's Internet pages and posting them via the NordicRadio site, in the hope that customers of the auctioneers would unwittingly reveal personal information, such as credit card numbers, to swindlers.
Such attempts are often called phishing. Didrichsen said the attempt could have been by a hacker with no connection to the radio site, and that it was not clear whether anyone had been duped.
NordicRadio manager Daniel Anundsen told the Internet edition of the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten that he had no reason to suspect his employee, who voluntarily went on suspension, of any wrongdoing.
"I talked to him and he has no idea what this is about," Anundsen told the newspaper.
Didrichsen said he suspected that a hacker had broken into the site and misused its Web pages.
"They'd have to be good, but it can be done," he told The Associated Press. "They could sit anywhere in the world and do it."
He said the radio station would be allowed back on the Internet as soon as it is was cleared of involvement in the attempted scam.
