Identity theft protection is big business these days, largely because identity theft itself has become such big business. Everywhere you look, there’s someone who’s stealing someone else’s identity. It might be an “illegal alien” or “undocumented worker” (pick your own term, we’re not playing politics here) using your social security number to get a job. It might be some creeper who spends his evenings diving in your dumpster who meticulously reassembles the credit card bill that you shredded last month. It might even be your own offspring who, in an effort to buy some rockin’ new clothes or a deck of Lucky’s, uses your credit card.
Or, it might be that you’re the victim of an organized group of people that are committing identity theft-related crimes in a multi-state or even a national level.
Take, for example, the six people who were recently arrested in Colorado. It turns out that the people, all from the area of Oakland, California, were using fake credit cards to get both cash and merchandise in a seven state area.
The grand jury in Colorado indicted the six. The jury alleges that the suspect tricked the employees of banks and stores into passing the authentication process for the fake cards, allowing the individuals to make both cash advances and purchases with them.
Among other things, the group got crafty with the scam. They bought a toll-free number and had it printed on the back side of the credit cards. When a bank or a business couldn’t get the card to read, they would call the number on the back of the card.
When that happened, one of the scam artists would answer. That person would then walk the individual on the other end of the line through the process of doing a manual override on the credit card.
Before the scheme was uncovered, it is suspected that the group ran up more than $65,000 in fraudulent credit card charges.
