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Meth Heads And ID Fraud
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-12-16
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A new trend in the illicit drug world is to generate income for the purchase of said drugs through identity fraud. It's an easy way for junkies, particularly meth heads, to get the kind of money they need to support their habit.
USA Today ran an article in Friday's edition talking about a case up in Edmonton, Alberta. They said the Edmonton police were raiding two hotel rooms. In the rooms, they found "meth pipes, stole credit cards, notebooks with handwritten notations about fraudulent transactions and printouts of stolen identity data" as well as two meth heads, both "sky high on methamphetamine."
The article goes in to the reasons why the combination of drug crime and cyber crime are gaining quickly as the crime of preference. They point out identity fraud is non-violent, criminal penalties are minimal and the use of computers and the Internet makes them anonymous.
The interesting thing about the article is how easy it was for these individuals to set up a system of breaking into cars, diving into company dumpsters and going through residential garbage cans to get the information they needed to set up vast financial resources to support their habit.
Most of this story happened in 2003 but the criminal proceedings are over yet. While possession of meth is a serious crime, much of the identity fraud they committed is going to be worse. They're charged with things like using stolen credit cards, manipulating bank accounts, selling the accounts to cybercriminals and the list goes on.
This is just one aspect of the cybercrime world. The problem is these folks are generally desperate and are looking for ways to fund their habit. This was a solid way for them to get there up until the point they caught. Now, the other part of this is the fact that these folks sold all this information to the global fraud business. This allows groups all over the world to utilize this information.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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