ID Theft Criminals & How They Were Caught

Along with crimes such as espionage, kidnapping and terrorism, identity theft has joined the list of some of the world's most serious crimes. The crime has become so prevalent and costly for the U.S. that the government has passed laws that constitute it as a federal offense punishable by law.

But just as identity fraud has become the latest crime epidemic to grab attention in the new millennium, the criminals who execute these crimes are also gaining notoriety. Just when you think you've figured out how to protect yourself from identity theft, criminals will think of new ways to scam. But hopefully with stricter regulations and harsher penalties brought about by laws such as the Identity Theft Penalty Act, villains will be brought to justice, just as these have.

Linus Baptiste and Phillip A. Cummings
Take an ambitious ex-felon and a restless employee of a Data software company and you have a recipe for an identity theft case so big that it spurred a series of new laws elevating identity theft to a new level of crime.

Linus Baptiste and Phillip A. Cummings were the masterminds behind one of the largest fraud rings the U.S. has ever known. They began their operation with credit report accounts that Cummings stole from his workplace. Much like the operations of a drug ring, they began by selling the stolen data for $60 each. They soon found that rather than selling the data, it would be much more lucrative to use the data to infiltrate financial details.

With a chain of "employees," they were able to steal the identities of more than 30,000 victims across the country. By changing bank account addresses, order new checks and open lines of credit, they were able to drain financial accounts into the millions.

Evading the law for many months, they only garnered suspicion when credit agencies began noticing unusual requests for numerous credit reports batches. Eventually, a phone call that traced them to the house where the operation was taking place was the key that busted the entire scam wide open.

Stephen Massey and Kari Melton
A former meth addict, Stephen Massey and his partner Kari Melton orchestrated one of the most extensive identity theft rings ever brought to justice by federal authorities. Along with his sidekick and self-taught computer whiz Kari Melton, Massey began what was known as “dumpster diving” from the recycling bins of an accounting firm. He and Melton would find discarded tax forms with just the right kinds of information sought out by identity thieves—full names, birthdates and social security numbers. They would apply for credit cards using those identities. As they got more ambitious, they opened mailbox accounts to use as bogus addresses of the victims.

Creating an almost elusive trail that ran all the way from Las Vegas to Atlantic City, Massey and Melton claimed that it was no matter that the victims would later find out about the fraud and alert the credit companies. The cards would simply be cancelled and they were free to go to their next victim. Eventually, Massey and Melton began adding others to their ring to do the menial work such as dumpster diving and credit checking.

After a while, they began to streamline their scheme by performing credit checks on the victims before stealing, because there was no point in trying to steal the identity of someone who had little or bad credit and had no money in their name. With mostly credit cards opened or stolen, the duo would then go to places like Las Vegas where credit to cash transitions weren’t highly monitored and cash out on their spoils.

The party ended one night in Las Vegas when one of the ring members ran into trouble with the police and in a panic led them to the hotel room in which they were all staying.

Identity Theft’s Eleven
When you’ve got a global network spanning from the Ukraine to Estonia to China and back to the U.S., the scale of the operation is likely to be very big. As was the case with one of the biggest identity theft scams to ever take place. Eleven individuals from several countries were indicted for using laptops to hack into several wireless computer networks of major U.S. retailer such as TJX Companies, Sports Authority, Office Max and Boston Market.

By hacking into these extensive databases and then using sniffing software to capture account information, these thieves were able to steal more than 40 million credit card and debit card numbers of mostly American citizens. The sheer amount of theft reports from consumers of those major retailers let to authorities cracking down on them.

Jocelyn Kirsch & Edward Anderton
A classic example of a small operation grown out of control is that of two students from Philadelphia, Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward Anderton. Dubbed the “Bonnie & Clyde” of ID theft, this young and promising couple began their thieving ways by using eBay to scam unsuspecting buyers with their “promise and don’t deliver” method that generated more than $30,000 in fraud money.

A small taste of the high life got them aiming their sights higher. They soon began to pick locks to rob personal information from their own friends and neighbors. They raked in nearly $120,000 in cash and merchandise using stolen credit card numbers and bank account details.

They lived a life of luxury on the bank account of others for nearly one year. A cushy apartment, lavish vacations in Europe and expensive shopping sprees were among their plundered items. Revealing how brash they were, both Anderton and Kirsch flaunted everything they stole.

A neighbor, believing her identity was stolen, reported it to the police. Coincidentally, the very next day, she was notified by UPS that a package she wasn’t expecting had arrived in her name. Police set up surveillance cameras at the pick-up location and caught the couple trying to claim the package.

At their apartment, authorities found lock picks and duplicated keys to many of the neighbors’ homes and their mailboxes. In addition, there were several computers and an ID making machine.

Abraham Abdullah
No one can deny that Abraham Abdullah, the busboy from an upscale restaurant, was an overachiever. Like most criminals, he began his trade with smaller crimes such as forgeries and fake checks. But he quickly learned that to really make money off of identity theft, he had to target those who had money. And lots of it.

For months, Abdullah diligently researched and garnered personal information from the wealthy and powerful using library computers. His list of targets was Fortune’s 400 most wealthy. Using forged letterheads, he gathered vital information from credit companies such as Equifax and Experian to hack into the brokerage accounts of his big name targets. Oprah Winfrey, Ted Turner, Warren Buffet and Martha Stewart were among his victims.

His scheme became more and more elaborate, with the use of such tactics as web enabled cell phones and virtual voice mail. Luxury items he bought were usually picked up and delivered by couriers and even prostitutes, but never by Abdullah himself.

As with many of the identity theft cases, this one was cracked when he tried to transfer $10 million from the bank account of Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel  Systems, into an Australian bank account. Bank officials were suspicious and alerted the fraud detectives, who began trailing him. They finally arranged a sting operation in which they posed as couriers and ambushed him.