He was unemployed and receiving welfare, but Adekunle Adetiloye was somehow living lavishly, complete with a Range Rover, extended trips to England and an expensive condominium.
That alone piqued authorities’ interest, but then there were two credit cards tucked away in his wallet that seemed to confirm suspicions that Adetiloye, a Nigerian-born Canadian citizen, was up to something nefarious. The cards each bore different names — Donald Douglas and Vincent Andriole — and helped authorities prosecute a case they describe as one of the largest high-tech bank robberies in U.S. history.
“Characterizing this fraud scheme as massive, if anything, is an understatement,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase of North Dakota said in court documents.
Adetiloye, 30, was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in prison on fraud charges. He was convicted of mail fraud, but authorities believe he masterminded a scheme to open nearly 600 fraudulent bank accounts and bilk 22 major banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal prosecutor Nick Chase said during the sentencing hearing in North Dakota that Adetiloye had an “insatiable hunger for other people’s money.”
Read more…
After being confined to Spring Arbor Nursing Home for more than a year, Patricia Gipe was eager to regain her independence, her family said.
Gipe hired Tonya Antionette Lloyd, a housekeeper from the nursing home, to help around her house and run a few errands.
Everything seemed fine until a phone call from her bank in November about a suspicious check alerted the 85-year-old woman to the theft of nearly $150,000 from her bank account.
Rocky Mount police arrested Lloyd, 35, on Thursday and charged her with felony obtaining property under false pretenses and three felony counts each of financial card fraud and identity theft. She was jailed in Nash County under a $300,000 secured bond.
“Tonya had Patsy’s trust and she just took advantage of it,” said David Bock, who is married to Gipe’s niece. “This woman is the lowest of the lowest type of criminal to take advantage of an 85-year-old widow.”
Read more…
It wasn’t unusual for Jacqueline to receive calls from numbers she didn’t recognize. As a Sales Manager, she spends a lot of time on the phone with a lot of different clients. But two weeks ago, she started receiving calls and texts from a lot of mystery numbers. The kicker: All the calls and texts were replies. This is her story—her saga—of several distinct yet interconnected security nightmares that involve a duplicated credit card, a pirated phone number, a rogue BlackBerry, and a deluge of spam.
In the last episode of our Security Nightmares, a mistaken case of identity theft cost James $200 a month on his mortgage. For Jacqueline, however, there was nothing mistaken about her experience with theft.
About a month ago, Jacqueline’s bank called with surprising news: She had just charged a couple grand on her credit card—1,100 miles from where she lived. Her credit card had not only been stolen, but someone had created a hard-coded duplicate card and indulged in a veritable joy ride, on her dime.
Unfortunately, this sort of nightmare happens more often than you’d expect. In October, the New York Post reported that a massive crime ring in Queens created thousands of fraudulent credit cards and racked up tall tabs on vacations and spending sprees.
Jacqueline’s bank cancelled the card and issued her a new one with a new number. But Jacqueline’s nightmare was far from over. It happened again. Jacqueline can only assume there’s something crooked at the bank. She has since received a second card, with a second set of digits; however, she hasn’t activated it, and once she’s paid off her first card she intends to close the account altogether.
Read more…
One of the primary benefits of using credit and cards is the many fraud protections inherent in and included with these products. In fact, most consumers continue to make purchasing decisions without taking into account these important features.
The Inherent Benefits Of Credit And Charge Cards
When using cash or debit cards, conducting a transaction immediately results in the near irrevocable transfer of funds. Certainly, consumers have little recourse, short of legal action, against someone who has already received cash payment. Likewise, debit card transactions are likely to stand so long as they were initially approved by the account holder. Any discrepancies, be they from fraud or through honest mistakes, have immediate consequences; the account holder’s money is no longer in his or her possession.
On the other hand, credit card and charge card transactions merely results in a charge against the cardholder’s account. Those charges are only tabulated at the end of the cardholder’s payment cycle, and the customer is only responsible for payment at an even further date. From the time of the transaction, until the time of the payment due date, as many as 55 days may pass.
During this time, the cardholder has ample opportunity to detect and reverse any mistakes. Debit card holders and even those who write checks, find this opportunity is sorely lacking whenever they notice that their bank account has been improperly debited by an amount that they did not authorize. While reversing a fraudulently written check or debit card transaction is possible, it is a difficult and time consuming process. During this time, account holders remain short of their funds, which can create tremendous challenges that a credit or charge card user would never face.
Read more…
To find the online megamall for stolen credit cards, I have to go to Pittsburgh.
That’s where Keith Mularski works. He’s a cybercrime agent with the FBI, and he’s going to show me how to buy thousands of stolen credit card numbers.
Mularski pulls up a login screen on his browser.
To even be able to see this site — to register and get a password here — Mularski had to use an an alias to persuade two criminals already on the inside to vouch for his criminality. (For more on Mularski, see our post “The FBI Agent Who Became A Black Market Mogul.”)
It’s sort of the exact opposite of getting two references when you’re applying for a job; rather than vouching for you as an upstanding, law-abiding citizen, you’re getting people to attest to your deviousness
Read more…
When Jim Smith opens a credit card account, he doesn’t have to pay the bill. That’s because Jim Smith is committing new account fraud by using Fred Jones’s name and Social Security number.
All Jim Smith needs is some basic information about Fred Jones, much of which is available in the phonebook, in his trash, in discarded files in the bank’s dumpster, or on social media sites. Maybe Fred also happens to work with Jim, and Jim has direct access to Fred’s files.
Once Jim has Fred’s information, all he has to do is go online with the PC in his cozy office, or head down to the local coffee shop and fire up his iPad, or even fill out a credit card application from his mobile phone.
Scenarios like this one happen all day long across the globe. Credit issuers are constantly looking for new tools to identify fraudulent applications faster.
Since online credit applicants can fool you with any number of tricks to get approved for credit leaving you holding the bag for losses, instead of verifying identity information on fraudulent applicants, consider verifying the reputation of the device (or computer) being used to submit the application in the first place. When a fraudster connects to your business, the computer being used can be evaluated in a fraction of a second for its risky intentions.
If you know the device being used is a known fraudster, you don’t have to spend the time, resources, and money running other fraud checks such as verifying identity information. You know the source is suspect and you can block the transaction upfront. Device fingerprinting coupled with the device’s reputation and risk profile helps identify the bad guys in the acquisition channel, so you don’t have to rely on other fraud detection tools that drive up the cost to decision an application.
View Source…
An excellent way to improve one’s level of security intelligence is to follow the writings of Robert X. Cringley, one of my favorite technology know-it-alls.
Anyway, Cringley’s credit card was recently hacked. And if his card can be hacked, anyone’s can. Like many cardholders, Cringley received a notification from his credit card company’s fraud department, informing him that his card data was being used overseas, on an online dating website.
A scammer used Cringley’s credit card number to create a fake profile, posing as a woman named Katya to lure desperate, unsuspecting men into dating scams.
Cringley determined that the IP address associated with the fraud was anonymized, going through numerous channels to disguise its origin. A Russia-based email address may mean Russian criminals are involved in the hack.
Cringley’s card was used to purchase Badoo credits, which are used to unlock certain features of the dating website, such as chatting with another user or requesting photos. The scammer used Cringley’s card to buy Badoo credits in numerous countries, making her profile internationally accessible.
Read more…
Renee and Jerry Woolf of rural Manteca face three felony counts of financial elder abuse, credit card fraud and one white collar crime enhancement involving $1.4 million of their 80-year-old aunt’s savings as they enter the final days of a month-long Superior Court trial in Stockton.
Assistant District Attorney Cherie Adams said the couple took care of the aunt after she was stricken by a stroke. Now it must be determined by the court how much of her savings were actually used for her care and how much went to the benefit of Woolf’s immediate family and business.
“There’s been over a million that has been in and out of the account,” Adams said.
Bank records reportedly indicated that as of January 2010 there was less than $5,000 left in her account. Adams added that the spending began in 2005 and continued until December of 2009.
Hundreds of checks were allegedly written against the elder’s account used to remodel their home, buy appliances and to purchase garage doors for Woolf’s garage door business as well as for the aunt’s care. She was removed from the home in March of 2010 and placed in an assisted care facility before the couple was arrested.
Read more…
A Georgia man connected to US$36.6 million in credit card fraud pleaded guilty Thursday to trafficking in counterfeit credit cards and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
U.S. Secret Service agents found more than 676,000 stolen credit card numbers on computers and e-mail accounts belonging to Rogelio Hackett Jr. when they searched his home in June 2009, the DOJ said. Hackett, 26, of Lithonia, Georgia, faces up to 10 years in prison on the access device charge and another two years on the identity theft charge.
Hackett also faces fines of up to twice the losses suffered by victims. Credit card companies have identified tens of thousands of fraudulent transactions, with a total of more than $36.6 million, using the card numbers found in Hackett’s possession, the DOJ said.
Secret Service agents purchased 40 counterfeit credit cards from Hackett in June 2009, paying $1,180 for the cards, court documents said.
Since 2002, Hackett trafficked in credit card information he obtained either by hacking into businesses’ computer networks or by purchasing stolen credit card numbers through online “carding forums,” according to court documents. Carding forums are online discussion groups where thieves sell stolen credit card information.
Read more…
Credit cards are becoming more sophisticated objects. This level of sophistication makes transactions easier, but safeguards are important to protect users, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
The biggest recent change in credit cards is the embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip, enabling what the industry calls “contactless payments.”
Contactless cards
In 2005 JP Morgan Chase led the way by introducing their RF Credit Card and coined the term “Blink” technology. These “contactless” cards could be simply waved in front of a special reader or swiped through a traditional terminal.
An RFID Credit Card is a standard credit card with a Radio Frequency Microprocessor embedded in it. At its most basic level it is nothing more than a “Read Only” Chip with your personal credit card information embedded in it, which can be read by an RFID Enabled Point of Sale Terminal.
The apparent benefits of RFID credit card transactions are convenience, speed and the elimination of employee contact with the card. To minimize accidental reading of these cards, they are designed to be read at a distance of one to four inches from the reader.
Read more…
Identity theft is a threat everyone faces, and that threat rises with the wave of new technology. It turns out your personal information can now be stolen without your even knowing. It’s called electronic pickpocketing, and ABC 4 took action to show how to protect yourself from becoming a victim.
Just about everyone with a bank account has a credit or debit card and if that card has a particular symbol on it, the card has radio frequency identification, or RFID. The technology makes transactions faster and is supposed to protect your security by reducing the paper trail, but a crook can put together a device that can steal your personal information.
This type of credit card makes consumers more prone to identity theft.
Bill Niedermeyer works for Kemesa, an electronic protection company in Salt Lake City. He’s an expert in radio frequency identification technology and agreed to help ABC 4 to take action to see just how dangerous it can be if used by the wrong person.
The crime can happen at a point of sale, utilizing an electronic system that consumers use instead of a cash register.
Read more…
The number of people falling victim to identity theft in the U.S. dropped dramatically last year — from 11 million in 2009 to 8.1 million in 2010, according to the recently released annual survey of consumer fraud by Javelin Strategy & Research. This was a 28 percent decrease — marking the lowest incidence of fraud since 2007.
In 2009, consumer losses from identity theft schemes reached $53 billion; however, that number dropped to $37 billion in 2010. But despite the steep decline, victims of debit and credit card fraud lost significantly more money last year — with the average out-of-pocket costs for victims jumping by more than 60 percent, from $387 to $631.
The reason? Credit card cloning — in which criminals clone debit or credit cards in other people’s names – is on the rise. This type of credit card theft usually takes longer to discover, and, as a result, it often leads to higher losses for consumers.
Worldwide, credit card fraud and identity theft have long been on the upswing. In December of 2010, 29 percent of debit or credit card users worldwide said that they had experienced debit or credit card fraud over the last five years — up from 18 percent in the summer of 2009, according to a survey commissioned by ACI Worldwide, an electronic payment software developer. The survey polled 4,200 people in the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Asia, Brazil and Dubai.
People in China experienced the highest level of credit card fraud — with 43 percent of survey respondents saying they had been exposed to fraud over the last five years. In contrast, only 11 percent of consumers in the Netherlands reported having been hit by credit or debit card fraud in the past five years, likely because the Netherlands, like other European countries, uses the so-called “chip-and-PIN” security feature to protect against credit card theft. In the U.S., 32 percent of American respondents reported being exposed to card fraud in the past five years.
Read more…
