Two weeks ago members of an international identity theft and forged credit card syndicate were able to boast of the $15 million they netted from for their efforts within the past year.
But now it’s the office of the Queens district attorney that’s doing the boasting after a huge bust last week in New York.
“Our investigation reveals that, in terms of just the sheer number of people indicted, this is one of the largest identity theft networks uncovered in recent history and is just possibly the tip of a much larger global credit card trafficking operation,” Queens district attorney Richard A. Brown said.
The identity theft ring members are accused of bilking 6,000 consumer and financial institutions out of $15 million, and using stolen information to make fraudulent purchases in places as far-flung as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
But in the end, the numbers were on the side of law enforcement. They tapped more than a hundred phones and listened in on roughly a million phone conversations—250,000 of them that had to be translated from West African languages and dialects.
Because you never know who’s using your personal information–or what they’re using it for–you need the support of professionals. LifeLock helps their nearly 1.5 members protect their identities.
Visit LifeLock.com to learn more about how they can help protect you. Enroll using the LifeLock promo code DEFENSE to pay only $9 a month and receive 30 days of free service.
At the end of the 30-day free period, your card will be automatically billed $9 monthly unless you cancel within that first 30-day period. You can cancel anytime without penalty by calling 1-800-LIFELOCK. This offer is for new LifeLock members only.
Tags: Identity Theft, identity theft arrests, identity theft crime ring, LifeLock promo code
Hooray for the good guys! As an ID theft victim, I’m always glad to hear when these lowlifes get busted. I’ll never know who ran up $18K in my name, but at least now I know it won’t be these guys!
I could not even think that someone could steal that much money and get away with it. I have switched to Life Lock because of this guy and a few others.