Massive ID theft scam used Mortgage, Escrow Cos

A grand jury in Seattle has indicted six people in connection with a massive identity theft scam that used insiders at a mortgage and escrow firm to siphen around $335,000 from customers of Bellevue mortgage company, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington on Wednesday.

According to a recently unsealed indictment, two identity theft ring leaders: Charles Griffin and Bianca Bowler recruited a Seattle resident, Juanita Booker, who worked at a Bellevue, Washington mortgage company supply them with personal and financial information for numerous people who had applied for mortgages at company. They also roped in one Raynette Armstrong, who worked at a local escrow firm and also provided them with personal and financial information on clients of the escrow firm. That information was used to locate and tap bank accounts and create phony drivers licenses using the names and information of the victims, but bearing the photographs of the co-conspirators. Bowler and a third co-conspirator were caught with elaborate computer set-ups for manufacturing counterfeit drivers licenses when their Seattle home.

For anyone who has ever applied for a mortgage and had to fax off a big pile of tax returns, bank statements and W-2’s to God Knows Who, this story is a nightmare come true.

According to the U.S. Attorney, after lifting the sensitive data, the conspirators traveled to various banks in Oregon and Washington to drain bank accounts, opened credit accounts and racked up huge charges at large stores such as Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart and jewelry stores such as Friedlanders and International Jewelers.

Apparently, the scheme came to light after one of the co-conspirators, who was on probation for another wire fraud scam, was paid a visit by probation officers, who discovered the elaborate fake-ID making setup.

In light of the recent hacks at TJX, etc. These kind of stories just remind us that, more often than not, low tech approaches to stealing data work perfectly fine: in this case: find a crooked insider or two, then pay them off to get the data you want.