posted on March 12, 2003 09:16:07 AM new
Police: Man Stole ID's of More Than 2,000 People Over Internet
The Associated Press
Published: Mar 12, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A man already on house arrest for identity theft is back in jail on charges that he stole information from more than 2,000 people over the Internet.
Sirvon Thomas, 22, used those people's information to open lines of credit to buy computer equipment, which he then put up for sale on eBay, investigators said. He then accepted money but never delivered the goods, they said.
"He's a very enterprising young man," Sgt. Bill Korinek said. "If he had put his energy and efforts into something legitimate, he could have done well."
After a five-month investigation, police arrested Thomas on Saturday and charged him with scheme to defraud and two counts of identity theft. Over three years, police said, he told them he got 2,000 identities from across the country and pocketed more than $100,000.
He ordered jewelry, computers and clothing and had them shipped to vacant houses, where he waited for delivery, police said. He then sold goods on the street at a reduced rate.
St. Petersburg detectives began investigating Thomas in October after getting complaints from computer companies such as Gateway and Apple Computer.
Detectives found Thomas had equipment to copy six DVD movies at a time, plus a machine to stamp out bogus credit cards, Korinek said.
Thomas was being held Wednesday in the Pinellas County Jail without bail. No public defender had yet been assigned to him, according to jail records.
Last May, Thomas pleaded guilty to grand theft, fraudulent use of identification and marijuana possession charges in Tampa. He was placed on probation for 36 months. When police arrested him Saturday, he was on house arrest.
One of Thomas' alleged victims was Gary Jurman, who owns a T-shirt printing shop in Tampa that often does business on the Internet. Several months ago, he sold about 100 plain T-shirts on eBay to Thomas, who was using a woman's name, police said.
"I'm very lucky," said Jurman, who lost a couple hundred dollars. "It could have been thousands of dollars, easily."
posted on March 12, 2003 09:36:48 AM new
Here is a Interesting article
---------------------------------
eBay Continues to Ignore the Problem
---------------------------------
Posted Monday, March 10, 2003 by scamout:
A month after calling eBay's attention to the illegal activity in the
sales and auctions of magnetic stripe readers, blank plastic cards
and credit card embossing tools, Merchant 911 is dismayed to find
these items still offered for sale at eBay's web site.
"I find it beyond my understanding," says Tom Mahoney, Merchant 911's
Founder and Director, "That eBay continues to sell these instruments
of crime under the guise of them having 'some legitimate uses,'
especially when they are advertised in the carder sites as a good
place to buy them."
Mahoney points out that the 'legitimate use' policy is weak at best.
"It skates on pretty thin ice, if you ask me." Mahoney continued.
"My liver will have legitimate use when I die or donate it, but you
can bet they wouldn't allow THAT on e-Bay."
Merchant 911 is calling on all merchants to appeal to eBay. "It
affects E-commerce AND brick and mortar operations since you can find
enough tools and material to start making fake cards with legitimate
information," said Mahoney. "Identity fraud is rampant enough
without eBay's contribution."
***********
Comments/discussion on this message must be addressed to [email protected]
REPLY will be addressed accordingly and will NOT go to this list.
Note that you must be subscribed to the CHAT list before you can post.
--------------
To unsubscribe from this forum, please go to
http://www.merchant911.org/unsub.html
