According to the
NY Daily News, Iguosade Osahon, a 28-year-old Nigerian-born student, has been charged with stealing the identities of 750 victims and used the $500,000 he stole to buy Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton bags and jewelry at Tiffany & Co.
He stole his victim’s personal info by trawling online data traffickers for personal information – names, birth dates and social security numbers – focusing on people who lived in wealthy Postal codes. He then went to Experian and other Credit Agencies and
ordered credit reports, which are readily available if you have that personal data.
Osahon collected 800 such credit reports and used them in turn to gain access to bank and credit card accounts of his victims. He has been charged with 147 counts of computer tampering, grand larceny and identity theft, and faces up to 15 years behind bars
if convicted – but at the moment he’s pleading not guilty.
If you haven’t checked your own Credit Report in the last year, then I encourage you to do so – I checked mine last month after Santander said there were problems on my record (which I presumed was exemplary). Turned out Santander staff were misreading the
Experian report, but I did find there was an ‘association’ – a connection linking my financial status with that of another person – still in force from a previous relationship, which I’m having removed.