Around the world in search of ID thieves

This report, the second of two parts, airs on Dateline NBC Sunday, July 22, 8 p.m. The first part aired at 7 p.m.

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

We’re on the hunt for a new kind of predator: Wendy, the apparent mastermind of an international identity theft ring. So far, the search had taking us taken us clear across the country and it’s about to take us around the world as we track down the crooks who steal your credit card and banking information to go on shopping sprees with your money.

I started the search for Wendy after I saw something most Americans have never seen. Internet security expert Dan Clements took us on a tour inside illegal underground Internet chatrooms, where we watched in amazement as computer hackers and identity thieves actually bought and sold your most personal information.

Dan Clements, Card Cops, Internet security expert: They’re selling log-ins to bank accounts.  Barclays, Wells Fargo, HSBC all the large banks…

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: So, somebody could get this information, log on to somebody’s account, and take their money.

Clements: Drain their account.

And Clements says the thieves don’t need to steal your actual credit card anymore, they just need the information. So, if a hacker can crack a computer at a bank or store, he can download all the data he needs to steal countless identities.

Just last week, the company that owns the popular retail stores T.J. Maxx and Marshalls disclosed that hackers may have stolen 45 million credit card records.

But Clements says anyone with access to your personal information can cash in using the Internet underground.

Clements: It could be the hotel clerk, the waiter in your restaurant, the clerk at the car rental.  They have access to this information.

Thousands of times a day, millions of times a year, credit cards are maxed out, and bank accounts are drained with stolen identities. So Dateline set out to track down some of the thieves.

We began our investigation a year ago.

First step:  Dangle some bait. We got a major credit card issuer to help us.  We made up same names and they gave us real cards under those fake names.

Next step: Have Dan Clements pretend to be a crook who stole our credit cards.  We watched as he offered up those cards in that high-tech den of thieves.

Clements: Ready?

Investigator: Ready.

Halfway across the country, a fraud investigator from the credit card company let us know as soon as the crooks took the bait—and started using our cards.

The results were astonishing cards were maxed out in minutes. One of our bait credit cards carried the fake name Oscar Ernesto. The fraudulent charges were coming from almost everywhere.

Hansen: So we had purchases in 16 different countries?

Investigator: Every continent except for Antarctica basically.

Clements: Identity theft, hitting Americans from foreign soil, is big business.

It’s big business that costs consumers billions and businesses tens of billions worldwide.

Just ask Rodrigo Bustos in Chile: His store was hit by crooks using one of our bait cards. We covered that charge, but he says his bank has made him absorb thousands in losses to identity thieves.

Rodrigo Bustos: They said “It’s your fault. Because you didn’t confirm it was the real owner of the credit card.”

Authorities say in most cases, it’s virtually impossible to identify the thieves, but Dateline decided to try.

To lure the crooks in, we set up our own online store, HansenDiscountElectronics.com, and let the thieves know that it was a good place to use stolen credit cards.

Clements: The message says, “cardable site.”

Hansen: So if you’ve got a hot credit card number, you can use it here.

Clements: Right.

The fraudulent orders poured in. Real thieves were using accounts stolen from real people like Leigh Morton.

Leigh Morton, victim: I was checking  to see if I could afford to go out to dinner and I had no money.

Hansen: No money?

Morton: No money.

Leigh Morton’s account was drained overnight by a series of online purchases.

Dateline’s store didn’t actually charge Leigh or anyone else— but we did send out the merchandise in order to track down the thieves.

I even set up my own shipping company, C.H. Delivery, and began fanning out across the country to deliver the loot.

I hoped the deliveries would lead us right to the thieves’ doorsteps, but instead I met people like Vickie Beebout and Angela Cater. Both said they thought were doing a favor for a man they met on the Internet.

Angela Cater (on the emails she received): “Let’s get married.  You know, I really love you.  I miss you.”  And it’s mushy, mushy all the time.

But it turns out, Angela and Vickie were talking to the same man—an international Internet thief. Using someone else’s picture and calling himself “Paul Desmond,” he had tricked them into accepting all this stuff and had asked them to forward it to a store overseas.

And the more deliveries I made, the more I heard about those mysterious stores.

In upstate New York, Jeff Ball told us he’s been getting lots of packages for his international business partner, “Wendy Kenson.” He told us “Wendy” is a model who wants to marry him.

Photos of "Wendy Kenson" that Jeff Ball received

Over the Internet, she told him she ran an international business and he could make money if he’d help her send packages to locations all over the world, including a shipment to Africa. It was a home theater system so big the shipping bill was more than $2,000 dollars. He agreed to pay that— and thousands more.

But as we talk, Jeff Ball doesn’t seem to be aware that the packages being shipped to his house in Wendy Kenson’s name have been ordered with stolen credit cards. So it’s a bitter dose of reality when we tell him the truth.

Hansen: And it appears, based upon our investigation, that Jeff that you’ve gotten caught up in an international conspiracy.

Ball: I got caught up into a scam.

Now we’re hoping that Jeff Ball will be willing to turn on “Wendy” and the thieves who scammed him. 

Hansen: Will you help me?

Ball: Yeah, I will help you.

But our search to track down Wendy and her gang of thieves won’t stop in the U.S. We’ll have to follow the trail of the packages overseas.

MORE FROM 'TO CATCH AN ID THIEF'

'To Catch an ID Thief' Section Front

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: