May 12, 2009
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New York Busts Major CC Theft Operation, Pt.3
How did they do it?The indictment charges that members of the ring acquired the credit cards of unsuspecting consumers of Non-Received as Issued (NRI) accounts. The debit and credit cards are mailed to the cardholders and intercepted by thieves who then forwarded them to Account Washers. Account Washers conducted fraudulent activities to acquire as much information as possible on the consumer for use by Account Preparers in accessing and taking over the accounts. Account Preparers fraudulently verified receipt of the cards using the SpoofCards technology. They used the SpoofCards to place a call to the financial institution disguising the caller id and voice. The Account Preparer then changed the pin number and addresses. At an appropriate time, the Account Preparer would then add a secondary credit card user and ask to have the credit limit increased.
An Account Supplier sold the accounts to cell leaders for either a flat fee or a percentage of the accessible credit limit. The cell leader would then give the account to a Document Manufacturer who would produce a new credit card and counterfeit identification cards. The Document Manufacturer charged a flat fee for each credit card and ID card produced. The cell leader would forward the counterfeit card and id to a “Foot Soldier.” The Foot Soldier was the criminal end user who physically accessed the accounts for cash or used them in charge transactions. The thief would often use an ATM to access funds; however, with counterfeit cards and identification documents such as driver’s licenses, the thief was able to conduct withdrawals from the account of up to $4,900 from a bank teller.
After the credit card accounts were activated and in use, Account Maintainers would continue to pay the card balance to strategically place the account in a positive position for a credit increase. The card balance was paid in order to avoid any detection of fraudulent activity. The Account Maintainer would access funds from one account to pay the balance of another. The criminals would slowly deplete the credit limit until it was completely topped off.