Eideard

Four of the five losers

Five Rochdale men have been jailed for using iTunes music gift vouchers to launder money in an internet scam.

The men used stolen credit card numbers to buy £750,000 worth of vouchers to sell at cheaper prices through eBay. They were caught when police stopped one of the men during a search at Hull port in 2007 and seized his laptop.

It led them to orchestrator Suhail Tufail, 26, who admitted fraud charges and was jailed for five years at Manchester Crown Court.

In May 2007, Humberside Ports police stopped three men – including Mohammed Arfan Rasool and Imran Aslam – as part of a routine search when they arrived from Amsterdam.

A “suspicious” laptop belonging to Rasool was seized and examined by Greater Manchester Police’s economic crime unit.

When officers examined the hard drive, along with two other computers found at his home, they found the details of more than 7,000 bank cards. The same details were found on computers seized from Tufail. They later discovered that many of the details had been used to fraudulently purchase iTunes gift certificates.

It emerged that Tufail developed the idea of buying the vouchers and then selling them at a reduced price to launder cash from the cards…

An eBay spokesperson said the company had worked closely with police to provide evidence and was “delighted” with the sentences.

“Criminal activity is not tolerated on our site and we will continue to work alongside law enforcement agencies to ensure that anyone who attempts to commit fraudulent activity on eBay won’t get away with it,” they added.

I imagine Steve Jobs was sort of pleased, as well.

I recall iTunes gift cards being shut down last time we went to use one as a birthday present – and it’s satisfying to know the details of the “gift card scam” that was the explanation for the quick stop.

Showing off jewelry from fraudulent purchases – Facebook

In what Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart described as a “sophisticated identity-theft ring,” a janitor stole data from as many as 250 patient files at a Northwestern University physicians’ group and, with the help of her two sisters and friends, used the personal information to charge more than $300,000 in jewelry, furniture, appliances and electronics. They sold the goods to friends and relatives, pocketing the profits.

Seven suspects have been arrested, while three others, including janitor Tijuana Leonard, are wanted on felony warrants, according to the sheriff’s office…

While working the night shift for Millard Cleaning Service, Leonard, 33, of Chicago, stole personal information from patient files in the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation’s offices and passed it along to others, Dart said.

In some cases they would use the personal information to open credit accounts at retailers either online or in the store, Dart said. In other cases they added their names to victims’ accounts. They then often went on an immediate shopping spree — sometimes charging in excess of $5,000 at a time, according to the sheriff.

Dart was critical that the stores weren’t more suspicious when the ring members opened credit accounts and then quickly bought as many as four plasma TVs at a time…

Do you think?

Investigators began noticing that many the victims saw doctors on floors 19-21 of the medical facility and narrowed the search down to Leonard, the janitor assigned to those floors…

The Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation has set up a hot line for patients to call.

Well, the Medical group is really on top of things, aren’t they?

US losses to online crime almost doubled during 2009, reveals a report.

Losses totalled $560 million in 2009, up from $265 milion in 2008, showed the annual report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

The most popular scams involved requests for advanced fees and non-delivery of merchandise…

One scam that proved popular in 2009 involved people receiving an e-mail from the “Ishmael Ghost Islamic Group”. The sender claims he has been told to assassinate the recipient and their family. Only by giving a donation to a UK group that helps Islamic expatriates will the death threat be lifted.

While the average loss from online fraud during 2009 was $575 the total jumped significantly because some victims lost enormous sums to criminals, said the report. About 1% of the crimes reported involved losses of more than $100,000…

The report also tried to put figures on the character of the hi-tech crime population. Figures it gathered suggest that 76% of criminals are male and more than 50% of them live in six locations; California, Florida, New York, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia.

See! Stop giving all the credit to Nigeria. Our native con artists are doing OK on their own.

As many as 12,000 Puerto Rican schoolchildren, teachers and school administrators are believed to be victims of an identity-theft ring that sold stolen personal documents to illegal immigrants in the mainland United States, according to the FBI.

A federal grand jury this week indicted eight people on charges of identity theft, aggravated identity theft and Social Security fraud.

“In search warrants, we found over 5,000 different types of identification documents — originals and copies, Social Security cards and birth certificates,” FBI spokesman Harry Rodriguez said.

“They were selling them as a set; an original birth certificate and Social Security card sold for $150 or more. Copies sold for $40 or more,” he said.

Authorities believe the suspects broke into about 50 public schools and stole personal files belonging to students, teachers and school administrators. In Puerto Rico, students must provide an original or a copy of their birth certificate to be registered in a school.

Should get them some sort of award for enterprise in entrepreneurship, eh?

Letters have been sent to thousands of officers of the New York Police Department warning them they may be victims of identity theft.

A civilian employee of the department’s pension fund is accused of stealing eight tapes containing the Social Security numbers and direct-deposit information for 80,000 current and retired cops.

Anthony Bonelli, 46, who served as the pension fund’s director of communications, has been charged with computer trespass, burglary and grand larceny.

He is accused of removing the tapes from a backup data warehouse on Staten Island after disabling security cameras.

I’ll bet that’s going to leave a bruise.

Fraudsters took money from French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s personal account after managing to get hold of his bank details, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Sarkozy complained to police in September after “small amounts” were stolen from his account, the Journal du Dimanche newspaper said, quoting sources close to the investigation.

Sarkozy’s office confirmed the details, the paper said. Criminal and financial fraud squads and a prosecutor in the Paris suburb of Nanterre were investigating the case.

Wonder what Sarkozy considers to be a “small amount”?