FC: N.Y. cops arrest busboy on charges of Net-fraud, from NYPost

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/26868.htm
                                      
HOW NYPD CRACKED THE ULTIMATE CYBERFRAUD
Tuesday,March 20,2001
                                      
By MURRAY WEISS

   USING computers in a local library, a Brooklyn busboy pulled off the
   largest identity-theft in Internet history, victimizing more than 200
   of the "Richest People in America" listed in Forbes magazine,
   authorities say.
   
   Abraham Abdallah, 32, a pudgy, convicted swindler and high-school
   dropout, is suspected of stealing millions of dollars as he cunningly
   used the Web to invade the personal financial lives of celebrities,
   billionaires and corporate executives, law enforcement sources told
   The Post.
   
   Abdallah allegedly breached the bank, brokerage and credit-card
   accounts of such movers and shakers as Steven Spielberg, Martha
   Stewart, George Lucas, Sumner Redstone, Oprah Winfrey, Ross Perot,
   George Soros, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, Ronald Perelman, Carl Icahn,
   Larry Ellison, Michael Bloomberg, David Geffen, Barry Diller and
   Michael Eisner.
   
   He skipped No. 1 on the Forbes list - Bill Gates - perhaps feeling he
   is too well known, sources said.
   
   Abdallah's elaborate scam went undetected as he first duped companies
   - including Equifax, TRW and Experian - into providing detailed credit
   reports on his rich victims, authorities said.
   
   He then used the confidential data to clone their identities - and
   gain access to their credit cards and accounts at such prestigious
   brokerage houses and investment banks as Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns,
   Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments, officials said.
   
   For nearly six months, the elusive Abdallah allegedly worked his scam,
   remaining nothing more than an electronic pulse on the Web.

[...]



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