A seven-member crew developed a brazen but sophisticated scheme to steal at least $1 million from innocent victims’ bank accounts. Between 2020 and 2022, they stole victims’ identities, hijacked their bank accounts and cellphones, impersonated them at bank branches and siphoned off their money as part of their nefarious multi-state fraudulent scheme. Most of the crew have been caught and are awaiting jail terms through the tremendous work of our law enforcement agencies.
This Justice Department report has the details how the crime unfolded.
Seven-member gang acquired the victims’ PII and forged fake ids
Christopher Peeples (aka Jerry Chen, Reginald Griffin, Charles Richardson, Robert Wolff), the ringleader, and Khalil Bey-Muhammad obtained personally identifiable and financial information belonging to the victims from the dark web or other sources. The information included the victims’ names, dates of birth, home addresses, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account information and passwords and phone numbers.
That information would be used by their other gang members to forge identification documents like a counterfeit driver’s license and other secondary forms of false identification. For a fake photo id, they used the photograph of one of the Crew’s members, typically Gerald Lee (aka Pimp), Malcolm Reasonover (aka Meechie), or Anayda Huertas.
SIM Swap gave more power to the thieves
In some cases, the gang would take over the victim’s phone number through a “SIM swap” fraud. A SIM swap fraud happens when the service for the victim’s cellphone number is switched to a SIM card or cellphone controlled by another person, in this case this seven-member gang. The gang members would either impersonate the victim and claim that the victim’s existing cellphone had been lost or would bribe corrupt cellphone store employees to process the SIM swap. By controlling the victim’s cellphone number, they would receive two-factor authentication or security text messages intended for the victim, thus enabling them to gain access to their bank account.
Making use of the stolen PII
Armed with all the information and the forged identities, the gang was ready to strike. They used the stolen information to log into victims’ bank accounts to create new accounts. They would then transfer funds from existing accounts to the newly created accounts to split the victims’ funds among multiple bank accounts. Smaller withdrawals will not attract as much attention as larger withdrawals.
The Crew would go to a city in the United States to fraudulently withdraw funds from victims’ accounts over a period of days. A gang member, who would be the “Runner” would enter different bank locations and use forged IDs bearing a photograph of the Runner to withdraw small amounts of money (less than $5,000 to avoid suspicion) from the teller. If they have the “SIM-swapped” cellphone, they will use it to receive and verify two factor authentication tokens. The gang would repeat the process for multiple victims at different bank locations to steal tens of thousands of dollars.
Law enforcement agencies strikes back
Through the careful investigation and coordination between multiple government agencies like the United States Attorney’s Office, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), 6 of the 7 members of this gang have been arrested in Georgia, Florida, and Illinois and brought to justice while efforts are on to catch the remaining gang member who is still at large.
One question that arises is whether the cellphone service provider has been investigated to find out their involvement in this crime.
The importance of being vigilant against identity thieves
Identity theft is a serious problem in today’s increasingly complex digital world. To protect our online identity it takes effort, time or if you can afford it, money. So we have to be vigilant and follow a regimen to keep our identities safe. As we have shown in this website, we need to have an action plan, we need to understand the online security basics and we need to join forces to defeat the criminals.
