Operation Phish Phry – FBI Breaks Up Identity Theft Ring

Operation Phish Fry, an investigation by the FBI  has resulted in the arrests of dozens of people in Southern California, Nevada, North Carolina and overseas in a major crackdown against identity theft. News reports say the FBI estimates they will arrest nearly 100 suspects in the case.

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Developing…

Largest Corporate Identity Theft Case in History

Breaking - Three men have been indicted in New Jersey in an identity theft case that the Justice Department is labeling as the largest in history. Authorities say more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in a corporate data breach involving five different companies.

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Update: Three Indicted in Major Hacking Case

Albert Gonzalez, 28 years old, of Miami, and two unnamed co-conspirators were charged with conspiracy and conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and accused of using a sophisticated hacking technique, which tries to find a way around a computer network’s firewall to steal credit- and debit-card information.
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Among the corporate victims named in the indictment are Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a New Jersey-based card-payment processor; 7-Eleven Inc., a Texas-based nationwide convenience store chain; and Hannaford Brothers Co., a Maine-based supermarket chain.

A data breach allegedly led by Mr. Gonzalez also siphoned off more than 40 million credit-card numbers from TJX Cos. and others, costing TJX $200 million.

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Counter-terrorism Investigators Find Alleged Identity Theft Ring

On a spring day last year, a Pakistani man came to Shamsha Laiwalla looking for help. He told her he had recently jumped off a cargo ship docked in the Port of Los Angeles and was now looking to buy a new identity.

On the surface, Laiwalla was not an obvious go-to person. She owns a seemingly innocuous vehicle registration company — one of the thousands in California that take care of DMV-related tasks for people willing to pay for the convenience.

For years, however, the 44-year-old Pakistan native has offered customers a startling menu of illegal services as the architect of an extensive fraud ring involving several DMV employees she regularly paid to produce licenses and other documents, according to Los Angeles police and federal officials. The names of at least some of her alleged clients have surfaced in ongoing federal investigations into national security issues, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing.

The Pakistani man was, in fact, an undercover detective in the Los Angeles Police Department’s counter-terrorism bureau, which is headed by Downing. For $3,500, Laiwalla told the detective, she could get a valid California driver’s license with his photo, an expertly forged birth certificate and a Social Security card, police say. All the documents would bear his new name, Francisco Gonzalez Rios.

via Counter-terrorism investigators find alleged identity theft ring – Los Angeles Times.

Retailers Asked To Report Missing or Stolen Fertilizer

The Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association has been advised to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious, or out of the ordinary related to missing or stolen fertilizer.

The FBI informed the IFAC that several lawn and garden facilities, as well as agriculture retail facilities in the Midwest have experienced the theft of ammonium nitrate fertilizers.

No thefts have been reported yet in Illinois.

If you have any information, or you are a retailer that has experienced theft of fertilizer, please contact the FBI regardless of how large or small the theft may have been.

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