Three men charged in ID theft of 30,000 people

Jet, Dec 16, 2002

Three men were recently charged with allegedly running a high-tech scheme to steal credit information from thousands of victims, a crime authorities said, that represented "every American's worst financial nightmare multiplied tens of thousands of times."

Losses from the alleged scam were put at $2.7 million and could grow as more victims are identified, U.S. Attorney James B. Comey said. He warned consumers to check their accounts for signs of tampering.

Some victims had their bank accounts drained, addresses changed, line of credit opened and new credit cards issued without approval. "A lot of people were ruined financially and their credit was ruined," Comey said.

Comey said credit information for some 30,000 people was stolen and authorities are trying to determine how many individuals were victimized.

"With a few keystrokes, these men picked the pockets of tens of thousands of Americans, and, in the process, took their identities, stole their money and swiped their security," Comey alleged.

Authorities charge the scheme began about three years ago when Philip Cummings, a help-desk worker at Teledata Communications, allegedly sold passwords and codes for downloading consumer credit reports to an unidentified person. Teledata, a software company, provides banks with computerized access to credit information databases.

Cummings was allegedly paid roughly $30 for each report, and the information was then passed on to at least 20 other people, who set out to make money from the stolen information, prosecutors said.

Cummings, 33, of Cartersville, GA, was released on $500,000 bond after an appearance in New York federal court. If convicted, he could get up to 30 years in prison for wire fraud.

In addition to Cummings, the FBI also charged Linus Baptiste and Hakeem Mohammed in the fraud.

Baptiste allegedly downloaded hundreds of credit reports with Cummings' access passwords. Mohammed has pleaded guilty to mail fraud for making changes to individual credit accounts.

"The potential windfall was probably far greater than the content of a bank vault, and they didn't even need a getaway car. All they needed was a phone and a computer, or so they thought," said FBI Assistant Director Kevin P. Donovan.

More than 15,000 credit reports were stolen from Experian, a credit history bureau, using passwords belonging to Ford Credit Corp., officials said.

Authorities said thousands of other credit reports were stolen from companies such as Washington Mutual Finance in Crossville, TN; Dollar Bank in Cleveland; Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Illinois; the Personal Finance Co. in Frankfort, IN; the Medical Bureau in Clearwater, FL; Vintage Apartments in Houston and Community Bank of Chaska in Chaska, MN.

In a company statement, Teledata officials said they had cooperated with the probe over the past eight months and were "pleased to learn that it has apparently come to a successful conclusion."