Think Identify Theft involves 'hacking' ? Think again...

[cbelt3]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/07/...o_sto.html

Here's a story of an Eighth Grade dropout using 'social engineering' to scam Credit Card company employees out of card numbers, SSID numbers, etc...

From Prison.

Wow.

[Wags]

This is what happens when the large Corps try to squeeze every buck possible out of their operation. They hire low-wage poorly trained phone operators from who knows what third world country then do little or no oversight. Some con with a gift for gab can call and get people's SS numbers from prison. Nice. That's why I don't use CC's.

[kj4btkljv]

This is also a wake up call for the prison system. The perp in the article made 200 - 300 calls almost every day, and those calls took up to 16 - 17 hours. That's an awful lot of time, even for being incarcerated, for a job like this.

That's actually what it was - the guy had a full time job, in prison, and it wasn't being a prisoner.

Let's not even bring up having a cell phone behind bars. That's a whole 'nother can of worms.

Jeff

[Speedy]

I had one of my credit cards scammed by someone calling the credit card company and getting the use of my account. When I called the company (Chase) after noticing charges I hadn't made, they fixed it but offered no apology, just a new card. At least they fessed up to giving away my info.

[blooz]

That was a good story.
Clearly the prison systm failed in monitoring this guy—16 hours a day on the phone he wasn't supposed to have?!!—but it shows what you can accomplish if you have enough chutzpah.

[Drew]

Fascinating story, thanks. Isn't it possible to set up a means of blocking cell phone calls from a certain location? If cell phone use by prisoners is a problem, I would think that they could just block them electronically.