Identity Theft

SC Magazine reports the Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 310,000 complaints last year, representing a 3.4 percent spike over the previous year, according to the entity’s annual report. Complainants reported more than $485 million in losses, many related to identity theft, advance-fee schemes and ruses in which victims are targeted via email by someone posing as an FBI agent. More than 14,000 people reported being conned by the latter, resulting in losses of more than $3.5 million. The IC3, a partnership of the FBI, National White Collar Crimes Center and Bureau of Justice Assistance, advised users to avoid opening unsolicited emails and to be wary of individuals who only accept cash or request payment up front. Alaska, the District of Columbia and New Jersey were the source of the most complaints on a per-capita basis.

The Christian Science Monitor reports a Canadian man convicted in what witnesses called one of the largest credit card fraud schemes in US history, is taking his case to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Adekunle Adetiloye pleaded guilty earlier to mail fraud and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Authorities say he stole the identities of about 38,000 people and bilked companies out of about $1.5 million. The 8th Circuit has appointed University of North Dakota law professor Steven Morrison to represent the defendant in the appeal. Adetiloye claimed in an appeal to the district court that his sentence was unfair because he was labeled the leader of the conspiracy. He says he was a mid-level player in the operation.

7th Space Interactive reports that Waya Nwaki admitted his role in an Internet fraud ring that stole more than $1.3 million after “phishing” confidential account information from Internet users. The ring employed “phishing” attacks, which use fraudulent web pages that mimic the legitimate web pages of e-commerce companies such as banks and payroll processors. Unwitting customers of those companies visit the fake web pages and provide confidential personal and financial information-dates of birth, Social Security numbers, mothers’ maiden names, and online account user names and passwords. These stolen identifiers are then used to make unauthorized withdrawals from victims’ accounts.

Help Net Security reports online survey scams are most often propagated through social network and sharing websites, but occasionally users are “assaulted” directly through their smartphones. Hoax-Slayer warns about a bogus offer of a free $1,000 Walmart gift card,hitting mobile phone users via a text message. Users who follow the link to the website and insert the code are redirected to another one where they are asked to complete a quiz or a survey, or to share their names and contact details in order to compete for the prize. At the end of each quiz or survey, the users are asked to enter their mobile phone numbers in order to get the results. Unfortunately for those who don’t spot the text written in very small letters below the “Submit” button, by doing so they are automatically subscribing to extremely pricey SMS services.

Dark Reading reports dead or alive, your identity is always at risk. New data shows that fraudsters use the Social Security numbers and other personal data of more than 2 million deceased people in the U.S. annually in order to get credit card and cell phone services each year under phony names. And much of the time, they aren’t actually targeting dead people on purpose. In some 1.6 million applications for credit card or other services that require personal identity information, the bad guys inadvertently used an SSN of a deceased person when creating a phony one, according to ID Analytics’ ID:A Labs, which published the data as part of an report on identity manipulators. Overall, criminals each year use the IDs of nearly 2.5 million deceased Americans to apply for credit cards and other services, according to the ID:A Labs, which matched the names, birthdays, and SSNs of some 100 million applications from January through March 2011 to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File.

The Martha’s Vineyard Times reports on what a victim of consumer fraud looks like, and how he lost his money. The scam artist contacted him by email then stole his identity by tricking the victim into revealing personal information. He managed to get more than $2,000 of the victim’s money. The thieves took his money by using his credit card information, buying something over the phone or online, or cleaning out a bank account. The victim is 55 years old, and he is hearing about more and more people who are victims of fraud much like him. The profile of a victim comes from the latest statistics on consumer fraud compiled by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC gathers reports of consumer fraud in a massive database used by law enforcement investigating fraud. The reports come from a variety of sources, including police, state attorneys general, state consumer affairs officials, wire transfer vendors, and others. Last year the FTC collected 1.8 million complaints, up 24 percent from the previous year.

Help Net Security reports customers of HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, are currently being targeted with a fake warning of account suspension. The email claims that someone tried to access the user’s account and failed, and that the bank suspended the account in order to protect the customer. Unfortunately, the offered link takes the victims to a phishing site made to look like the bank’s legitimate Internet banking login page, where they are asked to input their user ID, name, date of birth, security number, sort code, account number and ATM PIN code in order to prove their identity. Once the information is submitted by pressing on the “Continue” button, it is immediately sent to the phishers and the victims are redirected to the bank’s legitimate page.

The Wall Street Journal notes about 12 million Americans got hit by identity fraud in 2011, a 13% increase from a year earlier, thanks to consumers’ growing use of social-media websites and smartphones, plus a sharp jump in security breaches, according to a recent report from Javelin Strategy & Research. Some 7% of smartphone owners became identity-fraud victims in 2011, the Javelin survey of 5,000 consumers found. Smartphone users are about one-third more likely to fall prey to identity fraud than the general public, the report found. Why? Because smartphones are minicomputers that store vast quantities of personal information, yet many users don’t protect their smartphones the way they do laptops and PCs.

In a press release, the FBI said a Bergen County, New Jersey woman who was a member of a large-scale and sophisticated identity theft scheme was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Jung-Sook Ko, a/k/a “Grace Lim,” 48, of Ridgefield, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to unlawfully produce identification documents and to commit credit card fraud and aggravated identity theft. Ko was arrested on September 16, 2010, in a coordinated law enforcement takedown of 53 individuals in connection with widespread, sophisticated identity theft and fraud, including 43 other individuals charged along with Ko with participating in one large-scale criminal enterprise.

Independent Online reports nineteen people have been arrested in nine US states for trafficking online in counterfeit credit cards and stolen personal information, according to the Justice Department. The 19 arrested were members of a transnational criminal organisation called “Carder.su” that operated principally out of Las Vegas, the department said in a statement. US attorney Daniel Bogden said that the extent of the theft and sale of personal and financial information uncovered by this investigation is astonishing.