According to the US Justice Department and the FBI, a ring of
identity thieves has operated over a period of three years and has
stolen credit reports from all major credit reporting agencies. The
stolen information was allegedly used to take over victims'
identities, request credit cards, transfer funds from bank accounts
and make fraudulent purchases.
The main suspect, 33-year old Philip Cummings, was an employee
of Teledata Communications (TCI), a credit check agency for banks
and credit card companies. He allegedly used client passwords to
download tens of thousands of credit reports.
He is also accused of conspiring with another man, Linus
Baptiste of New Rochelle, New York, to sell the stolen reports to a
ring of 20 people in the Bronx and Brooklyn for $60 each. A third
individual, Hakeem Mohammed, faces similar charges.
The scam was revealed in February 2002, when Ford Motor Credit
discovered it was being billed for thousands of credit reports it
never ordered. The US authorities said that at least $2.7 million
was stolen, but they expect this figure to increase by millions of
dollars as the investigation continues.
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