Slashdot Mirror
Massive Online ID Fraud Ring Busted
Iphtashu Fitz writes "CNet News is reporting that the US Secret Service in conjunction with authorities in six foreign countries have arrested 28 people in the last 48 hours on charges of identity theft, computer fraud, credit card fraud and conspiracy. Dubbed Operation Firewall, the Secret Service identified a group of people who stole over 1.7 million credit card numbers as well as a passport-forging facility in Bulgaria. The investigation started in July 2003 when the Secret Service began investigating an unspecified financial crime. They identified the website Shadowcrew.com whose members traded tutorials and information about identity theft and forgery and exchanged sensitive personal and financial information. The Shadowcrew website has since undergone a makeover thanks to the Secret Service. A press release about the operation can also be found on their website."
I'm not a US citizen, so I may well be mistaken, but the USSS is part of the Department of Treasury. One of their better known mission is to deal with couterfeit money (beside of protecting the POTUS).
Since ID theft has the potential of screwing up the financial system in a rather major way, I'm not too surprised they got involved on that case.
Anyway, the idea of "defacing" the site was bloddy brilliant. It gives the strong message that the Law can get to the frauders level in order to catch them. I'm pretty sure the message got through to a few people in a much stronger way than a simple press release would have.