Investigators Make $1 Million Cyber-fraud Case Against Offenders

By Author: Peter Martin
Total Articles: 211
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Investigators in a U.S have issued $1 million cyber-fraud case on 26 defendants. The defendants are accused of using stolen financial information such as credit card details to purchase merchandise from Apple stores. The charges were placed by district attorney in Manhattan. The accused allegedly purchased credit card information extracted from websites based in other countries by their peers in the crime world.

Cybercriminals generally create fake credit cards. The stolen credit card information is placed on the magnetic strips. The accused than recruited fake shoppers for using the fake credit cards at Apple stores based in New York, Oregon and Florida among others. The hired shoppers purchased iPad, iPod and other Apple products by using the fake credit card. Credit card fraud and identity theft are some of the major crimes committed by stealing sensitive personal information. Criminals place the actual name of the fake shoppers on the front of the fake card to avoid detection. Payment authorizations generally tally the details on the magnetic strip and do not match the name embossed on the credit card. The number ...
... of people affected by identity theft cases runs in several millions across the world. The growing number of cybercrime instances poses threat to information security of online shoppers.

Victims of credit card fraud and identity theft place several repercussions such as loss of money, opening of fake credit accounts on their name, loan default letters from financial institutions for credit taken by offenders, denial of credit, low credit scores, negative credit report and legal hurdles. Victims also suffer intangible losses such as emotional trauma and adverse reputation. Investigators have identified two cybercrime rings operated by Shaheed Bilal and Anthony Harper both aged 28 and based at Brooklyn.

User negligence, security flaws and programming errors results in breach of sensitive personal information from websites. Information security professionals must regularly scan the websites for flaws and threat vectors. Proactive security measures would ensure that vulnerabilities are mitigated prior to their exploitation by cybercriminals.

Organizations generally use ethical hacking to conduct in-depth security evaluation. In this case, the investigators found a cache of tools used for developing duplicate credit cards, cash worth $3,00,000 and even firearms and ammunitions from the raided houses. Cyber educated counter crime professionals, updated cybercrime laws and international cooperation is crucial to bring justice to offenders and control the growing menace of cybercrime