Inmate Runs Credit Card Fraud Ring From Prison
Placing a criminal securely behind bars seems like a reliable way to put an end to his law-breaking activities. Unfortunately, as the world gets increasingly wireless, brick-and-mortar prisons may no longer suffice to keep the public safe from certain crimes, in particular credit card fraud.
This seems to be the lesson from a recent credit card fraud scheme cooked up by one Dimorio McDowel and his ring of accomplices. Last week, authorities arrested six Cleveland men who participated in the New Jersey-based credit card fraud scheme masterminded by McDowel. McDowel himself, however, was not arrested. He was already behind bars.
McDowel ran the operation from a high-security prison cell using an illicit, cell phone, which he had managed to get smuggled in. Posing as credit cardholders who had forgotten their account number; the fraudster managed to weasel tidbits of personal information from consumer service reps at the credit card issuers he called. Adding together the info gleaned, likely along with seed credit card information retrieved on the black market, McDowel was able to collect sufficient information to pose as the cardholder. In this capacity, he then added his ring members as authorized credit card users on the compromised credit card accounts.
The accomplices then posed as shoppers, using victims’ credit lines to purchase large-ticket items and prepaid credit cards from retailers, including Home Depot, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Sears and Best Buy. Multiple credit card issuers were affected, including GE Capital, Citigroup Financial and HSBC. When asked for valid identification, the thieves were able to produce effective counterfeits or supply parts of actual social security numbers.
Police detectives found out about the fraud ring by listening in on the phone calls on the illicit cell phone. Authorities estimate that before the credit card fraud ring was broken up last week, the fraudsters had made off with up to $1 million.
The incident is a wake-up call for financial institutions, law enforcement services, and corrective facilities alike. First of all, McDowel should never have been able to tease private cardholder information out of the financial institutions he targeted. Secondly, for law enforcers and corrective facilities, the notion that all it takes is a smuggled-in cell phone for a criminal in custody to get back into action is troubling, to say the least.
By now, the scheme has been unraveled and security restored to the compromised credit card accounts, and the underground shoppers are now slated to join McDowel behind bars. One may hope that authorities will do a better job this time of keeping cell phones out of their hands.
While the McDowel case is unusual, as credit card fraud schemes go, it is a sobering reminding that credit card fraud is on the rise. On the bright side, credit cardholders have zero liability for fraudulent charges; credit card issuers pick those up, as long as they are reported in a timely manner. However, It’s still up to each cardholder to carefully monitor their account and make sure to report any suspicious activity to your credit card issuer immediately. For more tips, see this article on how to protect yourself from credit card fraud.
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