Peggy O’Hare reports: Police have busted a Houston-based identity theft ring that victimized 457 people and 83 businesses scattered across 25 states, investigators announced today. The scheme worked by stealing people’s personal checks, then looking up their driver’s license numbers in an on-line database. Theft ring participants would then use fake Texas driver’s licenses featuring…
Category: ID Theft
UK: Hackers steal £1m in online tax scam
Stephen Condron and Christopher Leake report: Police are investigating how criminals managed to steal £1million from the taxman by accessing a Government computer system and granting themselves rebates. The thieves filed returns online using the passwords of genuine self-assessment taxpayers – then diverted the money to bogus accounts. The sting prompted concern yesterday that the…
Man gets 15 years for leading ID-theft ring
Adam Lynn reports: Convicted identity thief Larry Alan Hayes asked a judge for a second chance. What Hayes really wanted was an eighth one, and Pierce County Superior Court pro-tem Judge Eric Schmidt wasn’t inclined to give it to him. […] A jury in June convicted the 41-year-old man of leading organized crime, six counts…
Former loan officer indicted for fraud and ID theft
A federal grand jury has indicted Emma Vigil, of McAllen, and charged her with five counts of bank fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Vigil, 48, was arrested by FBI agents at her residence this morning and will be arraigned at a hearing this afternoon before…
International ID theft scheme defendant sentenced to 13 1/2 years
Koleowo Adeyemi Adesoye, 28, of Houston, was sentenced to 13 ½ years in federal prison without parole for his involvement in planning and executing an international identity theft scheme causing $2 million in losses to financial institutions, United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. United States District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. handed down the prison…
Former Employee of U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia admits using defendants’ identities to commit fraud
A former employee with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (“EDPA”) pleaded guilty today to federal charges, admitting she used a government-issued computer and defendants’ personal information to perpetrate a fraud totaling approximately $34,435, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced. Shakila Nakia Wallace, 25, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty…