- Friday, 9 January 2009
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That's as secure as a bottle of Talisker within 100 miles of Spinola
Hit-and-run locker room theft ring busted
A GROUP OF THIEVES which made a fortune raiding gyms and flogging stolen gear for millions on Ebay has been caught.
The gang would raid the changing rooms of gyms, nick credit cards and use them to buy computers and electronic gear from Best Buy.
This gear would be sold on auction sites making the thieves millions.
Inspector Knacker of the Seattle Yard fingered the collar of Billy Morris Britt, 36, of Seattle, and Gabriel K Jang, 37, of Renton, on charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Both were remanded in custody and face a 40-page charge sheet alleging they and others stole hundreds of credit cards from gymnasium lockers in Washington and Oregon, created nearly instant fake identification in their cars, and then purchased expensive electronics equipment with those stolen cards within hours of the theft.
Hundreds of gyms were targeted in the raids over the last few years. The thieves would only take one card in each heist so it would be hours before the thefts were noticed.
Assistant US Attorney Kathryn Warma said the men operated what amounted to a "mobile counterfeiting lab" that could create within minutes realistic driver's licenses, bearing the names on the stolen credit cards and the photo of the thief.
She said several search and forfeiture warrants were served today as the men were arrested.
Unfortunately for those who bought gear from the gang, which traded as Nexus Systems, coppers will be trawling eBay looking for the buyers and getting them to return the gear. ยต
L'Inq
Seattle Times
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http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:PS8rKsto-18J:stores.ebay.com/Nexus-Systems+Nexus+Systems+Computers&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us A small sample of the merchandise.
I realize many criminals aren't that bright, but these guys were at least bright enough to counterfeit cards and set up an ebay operation. The story says they made millions. For someone who has nothing, it may be worth the risk to steal $2000 worth of goods. But once they were worth millions, do you think they'd be willing to risk what they'd accumulated in order to net another $2000? Sure, I'm sure they spent money too, but presumably at least some of that was sticking around in the form of cars, motorcycles, televisions, etc. At first this hybrid low tech/high tech scheme seems clever, but it is very dumb. When the typical burglar gets caught, which they inevitably do, the police have an easy time recovering whatever goods they have on hand. But by using ebay, these guys left a very clear digital record of their misdeeds, so they are on the hook for everything they've done.