Secret Service busts online ID fraud ring
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Federal agents and international allies arrest 28 suspects thought to have traded in credit card numbers and financial information.
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FEDERAL authorities have indicted 19 people in the United States and abroad on charges related to a website investigators claimed was one of the largest online centers for trafficking in stolen identity information and credit cards.
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(InfoWorld) - Six men have been charged with orchestrating a phishing scheme that targeted AOL users, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. The men are accused of harvesting thousands of AOL e-mail addresses and then infecting victims' PCs with malicious software that would prevent them from logging on to AOL without entering their credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and other personal information. Under the scam, victims would receive fake e-mail greeting cards that would silently infect their computers with the log-on software, according to a grand jury indictment. Victims were also spammed with phoney e-mail messages that claimed to have come from AOL's billing department. "Due to a central server meltdown, your credit card information was lost," one such e-mail read, according to the indictment. "In order to enjoy your AOL experience and keep your account active, you must enter your credit card information within 24 hours." Some of the fake greeting cards claimed to come from Web sites such as Hallmark.com or BlueMountain.com, the indictment states. AOL users appear to have been the primary targets of the fraud, but others may also have been targeted, according to Tom Carson, a spokesman for the United States Attorney's office for the District of Connecticut. "The investigation is ongoing," he said. "I think we can say the bulk of those targeted were AOL users, but we can't say with 100 percent certainty that they were the only victims," he said. The accused are believed to have defrauded thousands of individuals, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said in a statement. "These are insidious crimes that wreak havoc on the lives of victims, and we will seek strict terms of imprisonment." The alleged scam was conducted over a two-year period, beginning in 2004, the U.S. Attorney said. Proceeds from the crime were used to purchase gaming consoles, laptop computers and gift cards, the indictment states. The men were actually indicted on fraud charges last week by a federal grand jury in New Haven, but the charges were not made public until Wednesday, when three of the men pleaded guilty. The three who have pleaded guilty face between two years and nine and a half years in prison, Carson said. They are Charlie Blount Jr., 22, of Branford, Connecticut, Richard D'Andrea, 22, of West Haven, Connecticut, and Thomas Taylor Jr., 20, also of West Haven. They are scheduled to be sentenced in mid-December. The three men awaiting arraignment are Michael Dolan, 22, of North Miami Beach, Florida, Keith Riedel, 20, of Winter Haven, Florida, and Daniel Mascia, 22, of West Haven. Dolan had previously been sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to accessing a protected computer without authorization.
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Â A group representing online merchants said it helped the U.S. Department of Justice hunt down online scam artists, in an sweep of online criminals dubbed "Operation Web Snare."
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Federal regulators warn that the  Internet is the thriving frontier for identity theft, but 72  percent of the thefts of personal information for scams last  year was done offline, a new report says.
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Federal agency now turns to Internet service providers for information on people under investigation.
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LONDON: Fraudsters have developed a potent new computer program that steals Internet banking customers&#39; details by duping them into opening up a bogus e-mail, a British security firm said Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - TheÂ FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is warning of fraudulent e-mails that appear to come from the FBI and U.S. military. "The IC3 has increasingly received intelligence of fraudulent schemes misrepresenting the FBI and/or Director Robert S. Mueller III," the center said in an alert published Tuesday. "The fraudulent e-mails give the appearance of legitimacy due to the usage of pictures of the FBI Director, seal, letterhead, and/or banners." The spam is actually pumping lotteries or are phony inheritance notifications, the IC3 said. Other scams use the FBI's name to "intimidate and convince the recipient the e-mail is legitimate," the IC3 said. Criminals have used the agency's name in extortion e-mails and online auction scams as well. The IC3 is a clearinghouse for complaints of criminal activity on the Internet. Run jointly by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, it works with other law enforcement agencies and industries to help crack down on illegal online activity. In a separate statement also issued Tuesday, the IC3 warned that scammers were also sending out fraudulent e-mail claiming to be from U.S. soldiers stationed overseas. "The scam e-mails vary in content; however, the general theme of each is to request personal information and/or funds from the individual receiving the e-mail," the IC3 said. The e-mails are variations on long-running scams such as the Nigerian "419" spam, which has been "surprisingly effective at extracting large amounts of cash from victims.," said Adam O'Donnell, a senior research scientist at antispam vendor Cloudmark. "Users have to be aware that anyone asking for your bank account information via e-mail, regardless of their stated reason, is trying to steal your hard-earned money," he said.
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In an investigation that led from online forums to a passport-forging facility in Bulgaria, law enforcement officials arrested in the last 48 hours suspects from eight states and six foreign countries on charges of identity theft, computer fraud, credit
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Identity thieves can snare Social Security numbers from a potpourri of public records, especially those maintained by state and local governments, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
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Agents at the US Secret Service unmasked 28 people who thought they were safe behind anonymous identities and charged them in connection with alleged ID Theft activities.
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The U.S. Secret Service arrested gang members allegedly responsible for $75 million in credit card fraud; over 200,000 account numbers recovered.
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Federal government agencies have risked exposing millions of Social Security numbers to identity thieves by including the numbers in federal liens notices, a report says.
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A summer-long effort targeting Internet crime has resulted in dozens of arrests and convictions on charges including use of "spam" e-mail to steal credit card numbers, computer hacking and online fraud, Justice Department officials said Thursday.
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In an attempt to stem the growing tide of online scams, identity theft and the proliferation of junk e-mail, the Justice Department and state law enforcement officials have initiated what
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Federal authorities have arrested 28 individuals in the United States and several other countries who are accused of operating public Web sites designed to help people steal, sell and forge credit cards and identification documents. -washingtonpost.com
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Federal authorities have arrested 28 individuals accused of operating public Web sites designed to help people steal, sell and forge credit cards and identification documents.