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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin, Part II

Summary: Hieu Minh Ngo, whom the U.S. Secret Service described as causing more material financial harm to more Americans than any other convicted cybercriminal, was deported to Vietnam after serving more than seven years for running identity theft services that earned roughly $3 million and were estimated to enable about $1.1 billion in new account fraud and $64 million in tax refund fraud. Lured to Guam by Secret Service agents posing through a U.K. intermediary, he pleaded guilty in New Jersey to hacking MicroBilt and in New Hampshire, and his cooperation led to 20 arrests, a dozen of them defendants drawn out by agents posing as Ngo.

What's compelling: The government's $1.1 billion fraud estimate is a floor built only from records of what customers searched for, not what they bought - and the agent who caught Ngo says the people defrauding pandemic loan and unemployment programs learned their trade on his site.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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