C Michael Forsyth The Identity Thief (epub)

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.One very fruitful scam was to send out en masse (sometimes as many as 300,000 in one wave) emails ostensibly from the mark's bank, warning that there had been a security breach and asking for verification of personal bank account information.A hyperlink imbedded in the email, when clicked upon, whisked the victim to what appeared to be the bank's Web site.The spoofed sites, as they were called in the trade, looked entirely authentic because Samantha loaded them with official-looking logos ripped off from the real bank's Web site.In a lucrative variation of this scheme, Samantha would phone, claiming to be from the state superior court, politely but firmly warning people that they'd shirked jury duty.To avoid fine or arrest for contempt of court, the marks must cooperate by immediately turning over personal information such as their Social Security number.In one of X's most lucrative operations, he ripped off the identities of inmates whom he contacted under the guise of a lawyer working pro bono on their court cases.Through correspondence, he gleaned enough personal data to apply for student loans using the inmates' identities.X assumed more than 50 aliases to rake in about $250,000 in federal student grants and loans over a three-year period.In the opinion of X, this particular operation was a victimless crime.At the most he had sullied the reputation of murderers, rapists and other criminals who could hardly be too concerned about their good names.But it was the follow-up hustle that really filled him with self-admiration.A paid-off clerk at the FBI fingerprint office intercepted a request for one of the inmates' fingerprints.He substituted X's prints, which Samantha had emailed to him in a PDF file.The switched prints, along with a few forged documents, helped X to assume the identity of the criminal.He walked right into a court building and waltzed out with $90,000 in assets the authorities couldn't prove the guy had embezzled and had intended to return.This, X preached to his crew, was "poetic justice."In their latest gambit, initiated just last week, about 3,000 emails had been sent to resident aliens from Muslim nations, as well as to visitors who'd recently had their visas approved.A sternly worded letter ostensibly from the Department of Homeland Security warned them that they were being investigated for possible links to Al-Qaeda.They were directed to a Web site where they were asked to provide detailed information about their assets, financial transactions, charitable donations, etc."Have I got a live one for you," Samantha declared, gleefully steering him toward the computer screen.Her voice was giddy and her face was flushed.Getting Samantha to achieve orgasm in bed was an exhausting chore but the intense thrill she got from larceny was almost scary.She pointed triumphantly to the screen as a name materialized."Ali Nazeer," she read."He's a filthy rich Kuwaiti playboy who visits the States once in a blue moon.When he does, he blows through money like there's no tomorrow.Luxury cars, yachts, jewelry and fur coats for his wives, concubines, girlfriends, hos and whoever.He also gambles recklessly and has a history of making enormous wire transfers to cover his losses."X smiled.This was right up his alley: The target was clearly an asshole who richly deserved to be parted from his riches, or at least a significant portion of them.Samantha continued."Here's the sweet part, X.Virtually no one in the country knows what Mr.Moneybags looks like.He's been written up in all the London and European tabloids, but he's notoriously camera shy."She clicked to another window, revealing a page from the London Sun crammed with screeching headlines all vying for attention.One large headline read, "Harem Scarem: Arab Playboy Adds Movie Scream Queen to His Stable." The photo showed a bosomy British starlet who, as far as X could glean from his quick glance at the article, had dumped her rock star boyfriend for Nazeer.The curvaceous crumpet stood arm in arm with a turbaned man whose back was to the camera as he directed her attention to his Arabian stallion."You see, just pictures of her, never his face," Sam went on."The last publicly available photograph of him, which I got after a lot of Googling, was taken when he was a student at Kuwait University at the age of 19." She held it up [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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