Identity theft is one of the most annoying crimes a person can commit. It completely turns the victim’s life on its head and requires hours and hours of work to fix all of the problems it creates.
One 33-year-old Florida man apparently doesn’t care about such things. Because, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), he committed Aggravated Identity Theft and Fraud against at least 450 different people.
Now, this man from Miami is going to be serving 55 months in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to one count of possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices and one count of aggravated identity theft. The DOJ reports that he actually possessed approximately 450 fraudulent, stolen, or counterfeit access devices, including others’ credit card numbers, social security numbers, and means to gain access to bank accounts.
Authorities uncovered all of the evidence in the Florida man’s home
According to court documents, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at the man’s home. That search uncovered a plethora of fraud evidence inside a padlocked room, including mechanisms to access the banking information of other people, such as personally identifying information (PII), social security numbers, account passwords, driver’s license numbers, phone numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, debit card numbers, and dates of birth belonging to other people.
Investigators discovered evidence of how he carried out the fraud on a variety of electronic devices, including smartphones and a MacBook laptop. The Florida man carried out most of the fraudulent conduct online, using social media and email. He stored PII-containing data on his devices in various formats and locations, including a spreadsheet with almost 450 access devices and notes saved on his MacBook Pro.
He sent and received many text messages on his phone that included personally identifiable information (PII), such as bank account logins, credit and debit card PINs, and information needed to access other people’s bank accounts.
The search also turned up tangible proof of fraud, such as more than $11,000 in cash, numerous credit, debit, and gift cards in other people’s names, phony identity cards, Western Union money orders, and a credit card re-encoder.
Fortunately for his victims, the Florida man either wasn’t very good at committing his crimes or perhaps thought that by only taking small amounts of money from each victim, he wouldn’t get caught. Because, according to the DOJ, the estimated loss to the over 450 victims in this case was only between $250,000 and $550,000.