MO: Modus Operandi of the Convicted Fraudster

As an update to the Fraudster’s Modus Operandi whitepaper, we thought that our readers may be interested in these two cases of convicted fraudsters…

This week Asman Alyas was sentenced to one year in prison at Manchester Crown Court for a similar offence; passing confidential bank details to fraudsters, resulting in the theft of £33,585 from 7 bank accounts.

Meanwhile in Columbia, Mario Simbaqueba Bonilla, aged 40, has been convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison after taking part in a sophisticated cyber-crime which led to the identity fraud affecting more than 600 people.

Between 2004 and 2007, Bonilla collected personal information using key logging. Once information had been collected his crimes expanded to identity theft and credit card fraud.

His crime then extended to money laundering, as he tried to cover his trail by transferring stolen money to other accounts and credit cards.

He was eventually arrested when he flew into the US, using a plane ticket bought with stolen funds in 2007.

Both cases echo the story of Elliot Castro, who began his fraud career stealing identities whilst working in a call centre. Although Elliot did not use cyber-crime to gather information, he was also arrested after disembarking a plane, after flying on a fraudulently purchased ticket.

Elliot was convicted in 2005; however these two convictions show that his story is still relevant. Elliot will be speaking with 192.com Business Services at Retail Fraud 2008, where he will be talking about his experiences, and how businesses can help to protect themselves from fraudsters. More information about Retail Fraud 2008 can be found here.