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Corporate Identity Theft on the Rise
prostoalex writes "As millions of Americans lose their identities to online and offline thieves, a new kind of crime has been cooked up by the criminals who are not bothering with doing pesky credit card charges. They steal entire companies, opening up merchant accounts for existing businesses and running up charges from aforementioned stolen credit card numbers. What's worse, is that the hole the criminals exploit seems to be built into the system. According to Bob Sullivan from MSNBC, "Many of the processing firms interviewed for this article claimed they caught on to the fraud after the transactions had cleared, but before the suspects had withdrawn the money from various checking accounts around the country. One did concede, however, that the scheme has real potential.""
check out the link http://www.iwks.com/features/default.asp?pagetypei d=2&articleid=31496&subsectionid=655
this type of theft is well known; just not as reported as personal id theft. From other stories is seems the average is 30,000 or more per theft. Seems that perhaps the victum in this story came out lucky.
However since you have to provide ID and would get captured on camera setting up a checking account, keeping your real ID does seem to be a challenge.
Identity theft was covered at this years blackhat in vegas and it was stated the the vast majority of indentity theft is corporate insiders stealing the info and selling it on the web. Hackers/crackers only account for a small about of the current identity theft.
presmike
This has actually been done before, and anyone can open an account for, as an example, "IsoRectal Spectroscopy" dba "IRS" and cash stolen tax checks.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
If you don't have a support contract with MS than the only way to talk to them for support is with your credit card.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
If the *credit card companies* were the ones who had to suffer the costs of fraud, rather than shifting it to the companies or to the taxpayer, then they would be a HELL of a lot more motivated to add stronger authentication to the system.
Except they are the ones who pay for it. They get to deduct a business loss from their taxes, because those losses reduce their earnings.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
...I've worked in the credit card industry for many years and am friends with a VP at one of the largest ISOs in the US.
Simple fact is, the system is not designed to prevent fraud. It is designed to detect, catch, and prosecute those that do exploit the system. Granted, the industry has slowly started trying to move toward a more proactive stance, while making it a little harder to comit fraud. But the merchants generally complain about efforts to make it harder on criminals and go out of their way to facilitate these types of problems.
Long story short, you may think you're getting away with these types of crimes, but rest assured, it's only a matter of time before you are caught and placed in jail.
Who hasn't read some story or seen some report on TV about "phishing" and those evil "hackers" who sniff your internet conx looking for credit card numbers?
It's not nearly as lurid to talk about joe schmoe, who got pissed at his boss and sold 100,000 customer records to some guy in detroit. Security breaches have always been about 80% inside jobs.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing.
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
-William Shakespeare - Othello the Moor of Venice (Iago at III, iii)
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
If you're a legitimate business, and want to accept credit cards, you go to your bank and open a merchant account. They check your financial history, may demand a deposit (on which they pay interest), want to see you in person, may visit your premises, and make you sign a painful contract. Then they charge you about $100 per month, plus 1-3% of the transaction cost. This is the way real companies do it.
If you're a less legitimate business, there are services for you, too. Charge-It-Now is a more or less legitimate one. "Now you can be approved to accept credit cards in as little as two hours and have a live merchant account in 24 hours. Applying online for our Internet processing software has never been easier. The entire application process is done online in less than 10 minutes and with our digital signature approval process; we do not need a physical signature. We deposit funds directly into your existing bank account. ... We accept 98% of applicants". At this tier, the rates are higher and the merchant is more likely to be doing something dodgy. These outfits aren't regulated as banks. They're resellers of banking services. They need to be better regulated.
Further down in the muck, there is the "high risk merchant account" business. "Has PaySystems or other merchant providers shutdown your company, virtually stopping you from processing credit cards? ... Good Credit / Bad Credit okay! ...
We pride our business on the fact we can place just about any business type. Even if you've experienced problems in the past with other processors or have a low credit rating."
This is where your mid-grade spammer gets credit card processing. Most of those operators need to be kicked out of the credit card system.
Down at the bottom, there's "offshore high-risk credit card processing". "Merchant account service for bad credit, high risk, gambling, and adult related business." This is the land of 15% fees, long holdbacks, and processors who disappear suddenly. Here we find companies operating from undisclosed locations, a criminal offense in many jurisdictions. These outfits help crooks and spammers launder their money, evade taxes, and hide from law enforcement. These operators are essentially part of organized crime.