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

[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.

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: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.