Somehow I missed this one but it’s so significant that even though I am late with linking to it, I hope to make more people aware of it. @Lucky225 writes: I recently discovered PG&E will let you sign up for electricity online without providing your SSN. Their website offered an option for “Alternate Identification”, so…
Category: ID Theft
Health worker photographed patient credit cards and went shopping with them, cops say
Brendan Rascius reports: A Maryland woman accused of using stolen credit and debit card information — then using it to shop online — has been charged with 120 counts of theft and fraud, police said in a news release. The woman was employed at a Walgreens in Cambridge, Maryland, a riverside city of about 13,000…
SCOOP: Australian national known as “DR32” to stand trial in U.S. on hacking charges
Australia has ordered an Australian national, David Kee Crees, extradited to the U.S., where he faces 22 counts involving hacking, fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Two of Crees’ better-known aliases were “Abdilo” and “DR32.” “Abdilo” DataBreaches started reporting on Crees in 2015 when he was known to this site as “Abdilo.” At the time, he…
Tax fraud ring leader jailed for selling children’s stolen identities
Sergiu Gatlan reports: The owner of a fraudulent tax preparation business, Ariel Jimenez, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling the stolen identities of thousands of children on welfare and helping “customers” to falsely claim tax credits, causing tens of millions of dollars in tax loss. His “customers” used the stolen identity info…
Ex-MLB pitcher and Ohio mayor Chuck Smith sentenced to 33 months in dark web credit card fraud
From major league pitcher to suburban mayor to Amazon driver to…. prison. Wow. Lukas Alpert reports: A former major league pitcher who later served two terms as the mayor of a Cleveland suburb, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for using stolen credit card info to buy gas. Charles E. Smith, Jr., 52,…
Foreign National Faces Federal Charges for Wire Fraud, Money Laundering and Aggravated Identity Theft Related to a Business Email Compromise Scheme
Victims of the Scheme were in at least Five States including California, Tennessee, Michigan, Hawaii, and Illinois Greenbelt, Maryland – Njuh Valentine Fombe, a/k/a “Valentine”, age 36, formerly of Beltsville, Maryland, had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on August 8, 2022, after being a fugitive for almost three years until his…