Massive Crime Network Busted for Identity Theft in New York

Identity Theft Network Busted in New York

The New York Times recently reported about a huge sting operation that busted a major identity theft crime organization in Queens:

A total of 111 people have been indicted in an identity-theft scheme that originated largely in the back rooms of Queens restaurants, the authorities said on Friday, and then mushroomed into a worldwide network of counterfeiters, hackers, fences and thieves who made off with an estimated $13 million in fraudulent purchases. (source)

This enormous network of criminals is one of the largest take-downs of identity thieves of all time. While that is absolutely great news, it’s frightening that the sophistication of these criminal operations has become so massive and intertwined.

Greed Will Find a Way

Despite credit card companies and banks assuring us that our information is safe in their hands, it’s becoming increasingly more clear that security is simply a buzzword to them. Stealing card information only takes a second to swipe from a handheld scanner, or in some cases, the card just need to be in the vicinity of a scanner. Have you noticed all of those “Tap to Pay!” advertisements we see everywhere?

Credit card companies are reluctant to add more “smart card” capabilities to their systems for a number of reasons:

1. It’s too expensive to upgrade the world’s infrastructure
2. Getting all of the banks to agree on a single new “standard” is a major hassle
3. Hackers and scammers are just going to find a new way around new security measures anyway

Where there’s money to be made, there will be a scam artist looking to siphon a little off the top. Hackers have proven that they are able to crack into just about every computer system on the planet, so thinking that adding a new chip into your credit card will solve everything is just fairy-tale talk.

Methods of Identity Theft Used By This Group

According to the NYPD, the criminal network busted in New York was able to acquire so many cards using a variety of simple techniques and a few sophisticated ones:

• Restaurant employees simply jotting down the numbers or swiping them with their own handheld devices (easily obtainable on the net)
• Bank employees both domestic and abroad were stealing customer information straight from the bank’s databases
• Computer hackers all over the world were able to break into supposedly “secure” banking systems and steal personal data.

Protecting Yourself

While you can never be 100% safe from identity fraud, vist our article on Identity Theft Prevention for more information about how to mitigate the threat as much as possible. You may also want to look at our coupon page for LifeLock.com’s ID fraud protection service.