On the hunt for ID thieves

For nearly two days, we’ve been watching in amazement as Dan Clements of Card ops” has taken us inside a criminal Internet underground of hackers and identity thieves, where stolen credit cards are bought and sold and used to make illegal purchases with lightning speed.

Clements: It doesn’t take days or months or years to have identity theft.  It hits you—

Hansen: It’s gone.

Clements: It takes seconds.  It’s gone.

The Internet thieves come from all over the world targeting Americans.  They’re rarely caught, almost never identified. But Dateline has figured out a way to lure these crooks out from the underground and put a face on this epidemic of crime.

The first step is to set up our own Internet company—“Hansen Discount Electronics.” We’re selling some popular items: Sony Playstations, Microsoft XBox-360s, mp3 players. But there’s a catch: our Website is secret. We’ve programmed it so that normal Internet shoppers can’t find it.

In fact, the only place we’re going to advertise our new Website is back in those underground chat rooms full of criminals. It’s likely the only ones to know about our online store will be identity thieves.  And we let them know we’re ready to take their business.

Clements: And the message says, “Cardable site.  Hanson discount electronics.com. ”

Hansen: “Cardable site,” meaning we don’t check very carefully.  So if you’ve got a hot credit card number, you can use it here.

Clements: Right.

Remember, the only way to know about our new Website is to read the message in the thieves’ underground—or have one of the thieves tell you about it.

But within hours, “Hansen” is a hotspot for crooks.

We even set up a special program to keep track of who’s checking out our Website.

Clements: That shows where all the traffic is coming insert when it visits Hansen Discount Electronics.  And when you go and do a click over here, if we mouse over here, there’s one from Tunisia.  There’s one from Malta.  If we come over here we see—

Hansen: Turkey.

Clements: Asia.

Hansen: Yep.

Clements: Come over here we see Romania.  And we’re gonna see that order from Macedonia here as well. 

Hansen: Latvia.

Clements: Latvia. 

Hansen: Spain. Nigeria.  Indonesia.  Singapore.  Philippines.  Nicaragua.  New York.  France.  Germany.  Italy.

Clements: It’s pretty much like the United Nations.  This is the global traffic that’s hitting Hansen Electronics. 

It doesn’t take long for people to start ordering merchandise with stolen cards.  Our first sale: a Sony Playstation, ordered with one of our own bait cards. 

Clements: Yeah, so you’ve only been in business how long now? 

Hansen: I could be a wealthy man.

Clements: An hour?

But the thieves aren’t just using our bait cards. They’re also using real cards stolen from real people.

Don’t worry though—our online store isn’t letting any of those charges go through. So,  actual consumers whose credit cards may have been stolen are not being billed during our sting.

But as the fraudulent orders roll in, we get what we’re looking for: the addresses where the illegally-purchased merchandise is supposed to be delivered.

And, if we follow those deliveries, we figure the trail should lead us to the thieves.

So, we set up another undercover business: CH Delivery.

We pack up some of the electronics matching what the thieves have ordered and set out to start making deliveries all across the country to see what happens to the loot purchased with stolen credit cards.

MORE FROM 'TO CATCH AN ID THIEF'

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Part I: On the hunt for ID thieves Around the world in search of ID thieves Behind the year-long investigation What we learned from the online store HansenDiscountElectronics.com Do you know 'Paul Desmond'? More on Card Cops Tips on protecting your identity 'To Catch an ID Thief' Section Front   Add 'To Catch an ID Thief' headlines to your news reader: