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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."
I absolutely did not see this Cumming.
Free XBox, PS2
People like this should be put away for a long time for ruining one's credit rating and making their lives a living hell. Restitution will be good too, but how much can you make in the can? not much.
Good riddance.
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
What I want to know is, when they caught the guy, did they have a positive ID?
Be relentless!
Why does a help desk operator have access to my credit report?
Surely you can design a system where very few humans ever have contact with all of a persons information.
I've dealt with on UK bank where when you wanted to perform certain transactions using telephone banking you were passed to a second tier operator and instructed not to give them your name.
Presumably the system was set up such that no one person had enough confidential information on a single customer.
The US really needs far stricter controls on SSNs - it's insane how often i need my ssn for day to day transactions.
Cummings, who is still free on bail, must report to prison on 9 March.
It's not like the guy could change his identity or anything.
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?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
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.
The CB App. What's your 20?
... but the biggest ID theif ever caught.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
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.
HE's not Philip Cummings!
I AM!!!
When I worked for a broker, I had access to client SSNs, clearing house info for EFT, the whole nine yards. We were monitored, but that only went so far. Our tech support guys had all the same info.
Oh, we passed all the industry regulation background searches, etc. In fact, I saw a number of people kicked out of my training class when the searches uncovered bounced checks, forgeries, and other financial crimes. But that's the thing - many people who do that stuff do keep trying to get jobs in the industry. Which makes me think there's a high likelihood that people prone to doing that in general try to take those jobs. I know it's a bit presumptuous, like assuming all pedophiles without records will try to get jobs with kids simply in order to molest them - I'm sure less than 100% of them molest, but as an aggregate group they're unsafe - and it scares me to know how open this access is, especially when I know what they get paid and the educational requirements involved for the job.
> 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.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
Not to nitpick or anything, but Dickinson is slightly west and south of the middle of nowhere. The middle of nowhere is actually in Rugby, ND, which is the geographic center of North America.
And how would you get there? Hidden in the back of a car or in someone's luggage? You won't get through customs. Your passport is definitely revoked in such case.
Yeah, if only he had some way of getting a new identity.
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