$2.7MM in ID theft related fraud and counting. Yes, from one case.

Philip Cummings was stealing data as far back as 2000. He was charged in October 2002 with the theft of personal financial information. He had taken and sold data on more than 30,000 people.

Cummings worked at the customer help desk of Teledata Communications (TCI). They are a company that makes software used by banks to request credit reports from the major credit reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.

In mid-September Cummings pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and fraud in connection with identity documents. While at TCI, he had access to confidential TCI customer passwords and subscriber codes to download credit histories just as the banks do. He sold these credit reports for $30 each. When he left TCI in March of 2000 he took with him access codes so that he could continue his criminal efforts. He even outfitted a laptop for one of his cohorts to access this information.

Linus Baptiste was an accomplice who helped sell the reports. Eniete Ukpong and Ahmet Ulutas are involved as well and they used the data to make purchases and obtain credit cards. Cummings was scheduled for trial in November as are Ukpong and Ulutas. Cummings will be now be sentenced on January 11, 2005. He could be sentenced to at least 14 years in prison and pay a fine up to $1 million.

More on this story was reported on BOL when the case was breaking.