The message read: `OK on the 5353 series which we are closing today--Mastercard $109 400.50. On the 4564 series--Visa which I'll leave open for a week $209417.90. And on good old don't leave home without someone else's: $43 200. `Making a grand total of $362018.40! `Let's hear it for our Aussie friends! `I hear they are doing just as well! `They are sending more numbers on the 23rd! Great! `They will be getting 10% as usual...a nice bonus of $36 200.00!' The bulletin board also contained advice for phreakers on using telephones in Telecom's 199 William Street headquarters and the green phones at Spencer Street Station in Melbourne--to make free international calls ... Phoenix, another local bulletin board user, listed prices for `EXTC'- tablets ... Late Friday, The Australian received evidence suggesting a break-in of the US Citibank network by Australian hackers known as The Realm ... The gang's US connection is believed to be based in Milwaukee and Houston. US Federal authorities have already raided US hackers involved in Citibank break-ins in the US. A covert operation of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence has had the Australian connection under surveillance and last week took delivery of six months' of evidence from the Pacific Island board and associated boards going by the name of Zen and Megaworks ... The Australian hackers include a number of Melbourne people, some teenagers, suspected or already convicted of crimes including fraud, drug use and car theft. Most are considered to be at the least, digital voyeurs, at worst criminals with a possible big crime connection. The information received by The Australian amounts to a confession on the part of the Australian hackers to involvement in the break-in of the US Citibank network as well as advice on phreaking ... and bank access. The following is taken directly from the bulletin board ... It was stored in a private mailbox on the board and is from a hacker known as Ivan Trotsky to one who uses the name Killer Tomato: `OK this is what's been happening ... `While back a Sysop had a call from the Feds, they wanted Force's, Phoenix's, Nom's, Brett Macmillan's and my names in connection with some hacking The Realm had done and also with some carding meant to have been done too. `Then in the last few days I get info passed to me that the Hack that was done to the Citibank in the US which has led to arrests over there also had connections to Force and Electron ...' DPG monitoring service spokesman, Mr Stuart Gill, said he believed the Pacific Island material was only the tip of the iceberg. `They're far better organised than the police,' he said. `Unless everyone gets their act together and we legislate against it, we'll still be talking about the same things this time next year.' Yesterday, the South Australian police started an operation to put bulletin boards operating in that state under surveillance.