A New Jersey-based crime ring with New York ties used fake identities to create 25,000 bogus credit cards and steal more than $200 million in one of the largest schemes ever investigated by federal authorities, officials said today.
Agents arrested 18 people who were allegedly involved in an elaborate fraud scheme that lasted nearly 10 years and stretched across dozens of states and several, according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities said the creative crew even doctored credit reports to pump up the fake cards’ spending and borrowing power, then borrowed and spent as much as they could without ever paying back the colossal debt.
To pull off the ruse, feds said the scammers would, in some cases, buy real Social Security numbers from people leaving the country.
In other cases, they just simply made up Social Security numbers.
They also created 80 sham companies that allowed them to run bogus charges through credit-card swipe machines.
And they also enlisted the services of small jewelry stores in Jersey City that supplied them with a steady stream of fresh IDs.
With their library of identities, the scammers ran up as much credit as they could on individual cards before tossing them aside and moving on.
“This type of fraud increases the costs of doing business for every American consumer, every day,” said Paul Fishman New Jersey’s US Attorney
Fishman said the suspects bought luxury cars, electronics, spa treatments, high-end clothing and millions of dollars in gold.
The leaders, Fishman said, were Babar Qureshi, 59, of Iselin, New Jersey, and Muhammad Shafiq, 38, of Bellerose, New Jersey.
Eleven live in New York, six in New Jersey, and one in Pennsylvania. Most are Pakistani, and some are US citizens, Fishman said.
Credit card scammers steal more than $200M
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Credit card scammers steal more than $200M
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Credit card scammers steal more than $200M
