Biggest Identity Thief Ever Gets Put Away

Anonymous Brave Guy writes "Apparently computer helpdesk employee Philip Cummings had more than just a day job: he's just gone down for 14 years in the biggest identity theft case ever. Lots of fascinating nuggets of information in that story: apparently fake ID goes for as little as $60, and the total stolen over just a couple of years was somewhere in the $50m-100m range."

Comments

Just write it off I guess

[Lindsay Lohan]

Philip Cummings, 35... a computer helpdesk employee...
Losses have been estimated to be between $50m (£38m) and $100m (£76m).
Cummings, who is still free on bail, must report to prison on 9 March. He is also due to pay compensation to be agreed at a later date.

Something tells me the 30,000 people he scammed aren't going to see a dime. Since Phil is not allowed to compensate with stolen funds, and he is unlikely to be returning to his lucrative helpdesk job anytime soon, I doubt he'll be able to fork over even $1 per victim.

Re:Just write it off I guess

[glitch23]

I got ripped off on Ebay many years ago (when other auction sites were still around, and I don't think there are any others nowadays) and I filed a complaint with the Post Office. After about a year or 2 the Attorney General of Idaho (the thief was from there) eventually contacted me and said the guy had been caught after other people had filed complaints. He was convicted and sent to jail. I was ripped off $750 or so and got back about $30 of that recently (about 5 months ago) because the guy is working while in jail and is paying people back as he makes money. I believe the priority of who gets money back first is being based on who got ripped off the most. I don't know where in that list I fall. I have a feeling it might be a while before I see the other $700+ he owes me because it took 5 years to see the first $30.

Re:Just write it off I guess

[mindstrm]

Yup, and that's how it is supposed to work. The onus is on the merchant to ensure that the person using the credit card is, in fat, authorized to use it.

The credit card is a token, a symbol to show that a given issuer is extending you credit, and will pay the merchant on demand. It is not the credit itself.

Far too many merchants do not check signatures and/or ask for identification.. and that's fine, because it's their gamble, not mine.

You can generally contest any payment made on your credit card, and the merchant will have to demonstrate that you authorized the transaction, or he's out of luck. Barring a signature, or stuff shipped to your address, or perhaps video evidence, there isn't much they can do.

It would be better for consumers if

[museumpeace]

this s**tbag's employer, Teledata Communications, was heavily fined...they must have had hundreds of complaints over the course of the thievery and never turned enough scrutiny on their own orgnaization to see the problem until way too late. I will be looking at which credit card issuers, banks, etc use Teledata Communications services and seeing if I can avoid doing business there.

but who says their competition is any safer?

It never ceases to amaze me...

[bennomatic]

...that these folks just don't learn. People who do this get caught because they keep going and going and going. Once you have a few million, you don't need to scam anyone any more! Just invest and retire! You will eventually mess up, and you WILL get caught!!

Of course, this sort of idiotic greed is what got them to start doing these bad things in the first place. I can't imagine trying to steal identities no matter how much the profit, myself.

Why is it?

[modemboy]

Seems like all the huge criminal acts these days are inside jobs. Companies from grocery stores to office buildings are spying on their employees for this exact reason.

Fake ID

[MrRuslan]

Here in NYC anyone can obtain a fake ID for under $50 bucks and it looks legit enogh to pass...And it's legal too because it has a disclamer in he back. I used to use one to get into clubs but i also used it (with my real info on it) to goto the bank because i always loose my wallet and i just get one for $30 bucks and i never had a problem with it...People who deal with money should be educated on whats real and whats not.

Re:Fake ID

[coyote-san]

I doubt a disclaimer on the back would get you off the hook if the front "looked legit enough to pass." If you used it as a fake id, it's a fake id and you could find yourself in a shitload of trouble.

Consider four data points. First, would it be legal if you deposited a check with some nice hefty figure on the front, but a "not a valid check do not accept" notice on the back? Or do you think you'll get a hefty fine from your bank (at best)? People have tried this, it's not a theoretical question.

Second, remember the story a while back about somebody passing an obviously fake $200 bill? It didn't matter that the bill had a picture of Daffy Duck (or whatever), they passed it as US currency and the feds hit them with federal counterfeiting charges.

Third, every so often some teens get the bright idea of driving around and shooting people with bb or paint guns. Just a joke, right? Nope - they find themselves facing felony "assault with a deadly weapon" charges because their victims thought they were being shot by a real gun.

The extreme form of this are idiots who do holdups with fake guns. Ha ha ha - they still get a mandatory 5 or 10 year extension for possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony. I've even heard of a case where somebody got that extension for the "finger in your coat pocket" trick.

Finally there's the guys who sell flour to undercover narcs. It's legal to sell flour, right? Wrong - if they claim they're selling you cocaine then it's attempt to distribute. The fact that they knew it was flour is legally irrelevant.

Re:he will be fine

[MLopat]

I'm not sure how the laws are down in US, but up here in Canada, the judge can rule that you are forbidden from profiting from your crime.

Specifically the law can provide that you are not permitted to sell publishing rights of any sort. Hopefully this will apply, and if not, it would be nice to see 30,000 people take up a class action law suit to recoup their losses after he makes his supposed $100M.

Meanwhile, at George Mason University....

[44BSD]

32,000 staff and student ID records, including photographs and SSN's have been exposed to {h|cr}ackers, possibly for as long as two months. GMU is home to The Center for Secure Information Systems. In other news, the cobbler's children are going barefoot...

Re:That should be good

[sjames]

I'll bet that if the credit agencies were held legally responsable for the hearsay they recklessly spout about people they would do a much better job verifying the accuracy of their information. If you or I published a report based on hearsay that did significant damage to someone's reputation, we would end up in court. If we couldn't show darned good reasons why we believed the information we published, we would end up being ordered to pay restitution.

Financial institutions aren't much better. Identity theft wouldn't be a problem if they would either stop issuing credit based on easily obtained 'proof' of identity without even a phone conversation (and apparently wondering why you want your bills sent to another state), or at least admit that they really don't have any idea who they sent a credit card to.

Honestly, an adverse report from a credit card isn't all that credible these days. While it's unlikely that the report is malicious or fraudulant, it's really quite likely to be in error.

Why do you call this THEFT?

[r6144]

I agree with many slashdotters that copyright infringement is different from theft, so why do you call this "theft"? After all, the victim did not lose his identity, and if you consider the money as stolen (which may be true, but it is still somewhat different IMHO), it isn't the identity that got stolen...

I'm not condoning the behavior, I just don't like the wording.

Others countries dont have a credit report system

[droopycom]

France for example....

And their system is working fine.

As long as you have a paycheck or a parent with a paycheck that can back you up you can usually rent an appartement.

Also French people use credit a lot less tahn American, and I guess thats better for everybody.

Re:Why?

[insert 3 letters]

You're worried about a help desk worker? That grumpy guy behind the counter at the video store (going off of Hollywood video) has your address, phone, birthdate, names of family members (and b-dates), and SSN (and a simple print screen will print all that data off). This is at the lowest level. Higher up, you get credit card numbers cause we store those. Oh and you *can't* really delete an account, when we "delete" an account, we simply set it to do not rent to. All the data's there. And I'm not quite sure about this, but I think all the customer data for a store (many tens of thousands?) is kept on a local server, probably with minimal ecyption (judging by the age of the system and a couple other factors). Not to mention that that vindictive sales man could just check out a movie on your account and lose it. I'm so glad I quit that job and am getting a "real" job. I think I'll stick with cash for movie transactions though.

Re:No way

[lubricated]

> I live in Dickinson, North Dakota.

population 16,000 in the middle of a state that's in the middle of nowhere.

And thus you know everything there is to know about meeting people in New York City.

Re:Why?

[Papparazzi]

>> "never be used as a national id" or something to that effect, and it has.
It is now used as a drivers licence # in many states, if you don't specificly request that the Dept. of Revenue not use it. This means that evey time you buy a bottle of wine, or cash a check, the cashier can ask to see it, or else you don't get what you are buying.