LawFuel.com
SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 YUSILL SCRIBNER,
Dmitry Naskovets Allegedly Ran Online Business Targeting
Financial Institutions And Committed Over 5,000 Frauds.
PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, announced today the extradition of
DMITRY M. NASKOVETS — creator and operator of CallService.biz,
an online business that assisted over 2,000 identity thieves in
over 5,000 instances of fraud — from the Czech Republic on
charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit
credit card fraud, and aggravated identity theft. NASKOVETS, 26,
consented to extradition and arrived in the Southern District of
New York late Friday. He was presented today in Manhattan
federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge MICHAEL H. DOLINGER.
According to the Indictment filed in Manhattan federal
court:
In June 2007, NASKOVETS, a Belarusian national, and coconspirator
SERGEY SEMASKO, also a Belarusian national who is
charged by the Belarusians, created CallService.biz (the
“Website”), an online business intended to assist identity
thieves in exploiting stolen financial information, such as
credit card and debit card numbers. The Website was, among other
things, designed to counteract security measures put in place by
financial institutions. These security measures, for example,
require persons seeking to make transfers or withdrawals from
accounts, or to conduct other financial transactions to verify by
telephone certain information associated with the account.
Businesses that accept online or telephone purchases by credit
card have similar security measures. Representatives at such
financial institutions and businesses are trained to make sure
that persons purporting over the telephone to be account holders
appear to fit the account holder’s profile. For example, if an
account holder is an American female, the screener is supposed to
make sure that the caller speaks English, and does in fact sound
like a female.
Through the Website, NASKOVETS and SEMASHKO, in
exchange for a fee, provided the services of English- and
German-speaking individuals to persons who had stolen account and
biographical information to beat the above-described security
screening processes. Specifically, those English and German
speakers would, among other things, pose as authorized account
holders and place telephone calls to financial institutions and
other businesses to conduct or confirm fraudulent withdrawals,
transactions, or other account activity on behalf of the Website
users who were identity thieves. Using information provided by
the identity thieves over the Website, which was hosted on a
computer in Lithuania, the fraudulent callers would, among other
things, confirm unauthorized withdrawals or transfers from bank
accounts, unblock accounts, or change the address or phone number
associated with an account so that it could be accessed by the
identity thieves.
For example, a request made to the Website could
consist of the name of the bank the identity thief wanted to
contact, the stolen account information and biographical
information the thief had illegally obtained, and instructions
from the identity thief as to what to say, or the fraudulent
transaction that was to be conducted, during a phone call to the
bank. NASKOVETS and his co-conspirators would assign an
appropriate individual employed by the Website, namely one who
was the same gender and spoke the same language as the authorized
account holder. After the requested call was made, NASKOVETS and
his co-conspirators would report the results to the identity
thief, who could issue instructions for further telephone calls,
if necessary.
The Website posted advertisements for its services on
other websites used by identity thieves, including
CardingWorld.cc, which was operated by SEMASHKO. The
advertisements boasted that the Website had “over 2090 people
working with” it and had “done over 5400 confirmation calls” to
banks, referencing calls to defeat security screening procedures
and confirm or conduct fraudulent transactions, as described
above.
* * *
NASKOVETS was arrested by Czech enforcement authorities
on April 15, 2010, at the request of the United States. Also on
April 15, 2010, in a joint operation, Belarusian law enforcement
authorities arrested SEMASHKO in Belarus and Lithuanian law
enforcement authorities seized the computers on which the Website
was hosted. Belarusian authorities also arrested additional
co-conspirators for related criminal conduct. In addition, the
New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”)
simultaneously seized the Website domain name pursuant to a
seizure warrant issued by U.S. District Judge LEWIS A. KAPLAN, to
whom the criminal case is also assigned.
The Indictment charges NASKOVETS with one count of
conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to
commit access device fraud, and one count of aggravated identity
theft. If convicted on all three counts, NASKOVETS faces a
maximum sentence of 39 and one-half years in prison.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: “The
extradition of Dmitry Naskovets is the result of exemplary
cooperation between U.S. and international law enforcement
agencies. Naskovets allegedly operated an online, one-stop-shop
for identity thieves and fraudsters, aimed at compromising the
security measures financial institutions use to protect their
customers. We will continue to work with the FBI and our
partners abroad to identify and stop cybercriminals wherever they
execute their illegal trade.”
Mr. BHARARA praised the FBI for its exceptional work on
the investigation, and thanked the Department of Justice’s Office
of International Affairs, the Belarusian Ministry of Internal
Affairs, High Tech Crime Department, the Police Presidium of the
Czech Republic, and the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau
Cybercrime Board for their assistance.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex
Frauds Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys THOMAS G.A. BROWN and
MICHAEL FERRARA are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely
accusations and NASKOVETS is presumed innocent unless and until
proven guilty.
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