$14 Million in Losses, and Now You can Stop Counting

$14,000,000 is a big number. So is 28,000. That is the number of credit and debit card numbers that were recovered in an international identity theft ring bust.

The U.S. Secret Service worked with the French National Police (FNP) who arrested one of the fraud leaders known on the internet as "Lord Kaisersose" and three of his associates in France. IN Miami the Secret Service was executing search warrants of their own and recovered the 28,000 compromised account numbers. Losses attributed to those arrested are estimated at $14 million.

In a separate investigation the Secret Service coordinated with the FNP and the Calgary Police Service where one arrest was made. Online transactions conducted by "THEEEEL" revealed that he had purchased thousands of dollars worth of credit and debit card numbers. The search and arrest also recovered devices associated with this type of fraud including skimming and encoding devices as well as counterfeit credit cards.

The same operation that netted THEEEEL also helped arrest "Dron" a month earlier, also in Canada. Dron manufactured the skimmers and had a hundred that were being built at the time. He also had $30,000 in U.S. and Canadian currency that was taken.

It is nice to finally see a success story included with all the losses absorbed by the banking industry.