Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announced the indictment of Iguosade Osahon, 28, for stealing more than $500,000 by exploiting stolen identity information over a three-year period. Osahon stole the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of more than 750 individuals to obtain at least 800 credit reports, which in turn he used to perpetrate a variety of identity theft scams. He has been charged in a 147-count indictment with Computer Tampering, Grand Larceny, Identity Theft, and Scheme to Defraud, among other charges. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between November 2007 and February 2010.
According to documents filed in court, the investigation leading to today’s indictment revealed that beginning in November 2007, Osahon began compiling the personal identification information of his victims, including their Social Security numbers and dates of birth, from a variety of sources, including online data traffickers. He then submitted this personal data to the websites of three principal credit reporting bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – as well as web-based portals. Armed with victims’ personal data, he was frequently able to bypass the sites’ security questions to obtain victims’ credit reports. In a single week in February 2010, Osahon was able to obtain the credit reports of 36 individuals residing in New York, California, and Florida over the Internet from a single credit reporting bureau.
Osahon used this information to take over victims’ accounts, principally bank and credit card accounts. Though he targeted banks across the country, the investigation focused on losses to customers of Chase Bank, a Manhattan-based institution, and identified more than $500,000 in fraud attributable to him. Analysis of the bank records and other documents indicate that he spent some of his stolen funds on Tiffany & Co. jewelry, Rolex watches, and goods from Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdale’s, Apple, Target, and Circuit City.
Source: New York County District Attorney’s Office