John Petrick reports: A Clifton woman pleaded guilty in state court Wednesday to her role in a complex scheme run from the Passaic County Jail that stole the identities of inmates to fraudulently obtain more than $450,000 from American Express and others. Rania Al-Monakel, 34, will have to serve 365 days in the county jail…
Category: ID Theft
Watt may appeal sentence
Todd Wallack reports that Stephen Watt, the former Morgan Stanley coder who provided Albert Gonzalez with a sniffer program used to steal data from TJX customers, may appeal his sentence: Stephen Watt was sentenced Dec. 28 by a federal judge in Boston to two years in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered…
Four men arrested in PA on ID theft charges
The Associated Press reports that four men have been arrested and charged in Pennsylvania with running a multistate identity theft operation. Bensalem police say they recovered documents — including licenses and credit cards — listing the names of about 100 victims when they made the arrests Monday. Police charged 31-year-old Earl Johnson, 30-year-old Armone Stanley,…
TSA turbulence grips Logan, nation
Jessica Fargen reports: A recent data breach at Logan International Airport involving a TSA contract worker, coming amid other high-profile Transportation Security Administration lapses, casts another cloud over a federal agency engulfed in turmoil. In the latest snafu, a Lynn couple is due back in court Wednesday, accused of selling the identities of at least…
Philadelphia woman charged in ID theft ring
On December 14, United States Attorney Michael L. Levy announced the filing of a two-count information (pdf) charging Cursheena Patterson, age 24, of Philadelphia, with one count of conspiracy to commit unauthorized access fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. According to the information, from October through December, 2008, Patterson allegedly obtained the names,…
Update AK: Source of stolen credit information was a restaurant
James Halpin reports: The source of the debit and credit card data stolen from hundreds of Anchorage residents in a sophisticated hacking attack was Little Italy, a family-owned restaurant in South Anchorage, its owner said Tuesday. Police say anywhere from 150 to 1,000 card numbers were stolen and used in the attack, which started generating…