Around the world in search of ID thieves

I’m finally face-to-face with her supposed lawyer Barrister Micheal, and I’m not going to let this opportunity go.

So, I tell Michael I think he’s told me nothing but lies.

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: I’m investigating an extensive international credit card fraud and identity theft ring.  You have now surfaced.  In this operation.  I think it would be a good time for you to tell me the truth about what you came here today.

Barrister Micheal: I told you why I came.  Okay?

Hansen: I know.  But I want the truth this time.

Barrister Micheal: No.  That’s the truth.  You can call her.

Hansen: This whole thing is falling apart here.

Barrister Micheal: No.  Because I don’t understand who this—I told you if I would know her, I would tell you this is the woman.  I already told you what she told me.

Hansen: Let me tell you a few things.

Barrister Micheal: Huh?

Hansen: Number one, I don’t think there’s really a Wendy.  Number two, I don’t think you’re really a barrister.  And number three, I think you came here to scam me out of $200,000.

Barrister Micheal: No, no, no, no, no.

But I tell him I’m not buying into his get rich quick scheme  he claimed would make me millions of dollars

Hansen: I don’t think there’s $6.5 million sitting a security company in London.

Barrister Micheal: See, the fact is, I have to be open to you.  That was what she wrote me on the mail.

Hansen: So you didn’t check it out yourself?

Barrister Micheal: No, to be serious.

Hansen: Are you actually a barrister?

Barrister Micheal: To be serious, I have to tell you the truth.

Hansen: Are you actually a barrister?

Barrister Micheal: I’m not a barrister.

Hansen: Then you lied to me.

Barrister Micheal: Yeah.  Of course I lied.  ‘Cause that’s what she told me, she wrote me, I have to-

Hansen: Oh.  So now it’s Wendy’s fault.  So you lied about being a barrister because a woman who doesn’t exist told you to lie?  Micheal.  Is that your real--  I don’t even know if that’s your real name.

Hansen: Is your real name Micheal?

Barrister Micheal: Huh?

Hansen: Is your real name Micheal?

Barrister Micheal: No, people call me Micheal, but it’s not my real name.

Hansen: What is your real name?

Barrister Micheal: My real name is Lukman.

So Wendy’s lawyer, Micheal, is not a lawyer after all.  And his name’s not Micheal.

And guess what—he isn’t from South Africa, either.

Hansen: And where are you from originally?

Barrister Micheal: Hmm?  I’m from Nigeria.

Hansen: From Nigeria. 

ENCARTA NIGERIA: Maps, facts and figures

Nigeria is a county famous for scams. Remember, computer records back at our online store show that most of the orders, made in the name of Wendy Kenson, were actually placed from computers in Nigeria — and West Africa— probably from Internet cafes we recorded with hidden cameras after authorities told us it was a hotbed of crime.

So, it’s clear, we really are onto an international gang of con artists and identity thieves who’ve been hiding behind this photo of the supposed “Wendy.”

Hansen: And what about all this stuff about law school and—

Barrister Micheal: That’s what she told me to say, you know?  I mean-

Hansen: She told you to say all that.

Barrister Micheal: Yeah.

Hansen: Everybody lies, so it’s okay.           

Barrister Micheal: Everybody lies.

Hansen: So it’s okay.

Hansen: Listen, listen, listen.  Wendy does not exist.  Okay?  At least I don’t think she exists.  This person posing as Wendy has been ripping people off for a long time.

Barrister Micheal: Probably.

Finally, there’s an admission that “Wendy,”  the face of the international crime ring, is a fiction, a ruse, just a pretty picture to con people.

Hansen: All right.  So you never really met Wendy?

Barrister Micheal: Yeah.  I just—

Hansen: So you don’t even know if Wendy really exists? Did you or did you not lie to me?

Barrister Micheal: I lied to you.

Hansen: Okay.

Barrister Micheal: I know that. I know that I lied to you.  I’m sorry about that.

Remember, he still doesn’t know that all this time we’ve been recording on hidden cameras.

Now, it’s time to let Barrister Micheal, whoever he is, know... he’s been exposed.

Hansen: I’m Chris Hansen and I work for a show called “Dateline NBC.”

Barrister Micheal: Dateline, Dateline?

Hansen: And those are my cameras.  And if there’s anything else you’d like to say, we’d like to hear it.  If not, you’re free to go.

Barrister Micheal: Well, what do you, what do you want me to say?

Hansen: Whatever you want to say.

In the end, the barrister who isn’t wants you believe he’s not a bad guy after all. And in spite of his repeated lies, he has in interesting message about telling the truth.

Barrister Micheal: Well, I just believe—all lying and stuff like this to people is not the right thing.

Hansen: And so you’re here doing something that wasn’t the right thing today?

Barrister Micheal: Right. I believe I lied to you.

Hansen: Right.  So you’ve never lied to anybody else.  I was the first guy you lied to?

Barrister Micheal: Of course I lie.  Everybody lies.  Of course.  Of course.

He says he’s sorry, though we think he’s just looking for an easy exit. He’s one soldier in an army of identity thieves scattered across the globe. We don’t have the power to arrest him, so he walks free.

Internet security expert Dan Clements says that’s pretty much how it goes in the world of identity thieves.

Dan Clements, Card Cops: These are very intelligent people, these identity thieves. But they know that the prosecutions for identity theft are left then one percent.

Hansen: Less then one percent?

Clements: Less then one percent. 

But U.S. officials say they’re trying to change that. Craig Magaw of the U.S. Secret service says federal agents have infiltrated criminal chat rooms to break up identity theft rings. 

Craig Magaw: Anybody and everybody that’s on those Websites are involved in criminal activity.  There is no legitimate business being conducted on those Websites.

Right now, he says the secret service is running 15 undercover operations.  The FBI and other agencies are also investigating these crimes.

But with identity thieves spanning the globe and stealing at internet speed, it’s harder than ever for authorities to keep up.

Just look at an e-mail Dan Clements showed us: Announcing that one of the biggest chat rooms in the thieves’ underground is moving its computers to Iran.

Clements: And that e-mail that we just received was basically saying, “Hey, guys.  We’re hosted in Iran.  We’re untouchable to the US government.  Come over here.” Iranian servers, which are clearly outside a subpoena from the U.S..

Hansen: They’ll never get anyone there.

Clements: Never.

Wherever the Wendy gang is these days, clearly we hit a nerve with them. Soon after Barrister Micheal admitted it was all a big lie, I got an e-mail, from none other than “Wendy.”

“F**k up Chris , so you ....have to set me up. You will riot in Hell fire. Deadman, I direct you to unknown people.”

As for Wendy herself, looks like she really is just a pretty picture the thieves used as part of their con. A tip from a viewer led us to a European Web site, where we saw the same photos of Wendy, only here she’s known as “Angel”.

Our investigation may have forced the thieves to shut down the Wendy operation, but there’s no way they’re out of business.  

In the Internet underworld, it’s easy to set up shop under a brand new name with a brand new face.

In fact, they’re probably prowling those thieves’ chat rooms, right now.

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: