Free Republic

Five men have been charged for allegedly taking part in an international identity theft scheme aimed at stealing millions of dollars from military members and veterans, according to a 14-count federal indictment unsealed this week in Texas. Authorities said the five men coordinated to steal personal information from thousands of military members and veterans. The men were based in the Philippines and the U.S. as part of a scheme that dates back to 2014, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said this week. The defendents — Robert Wayne Boling Jr., Fredrick Brown, Trorice Crawford, Allan Albert Kerr, and Jongmin Seok —...

The FBI on Wednesday announced that it had charged 53 defendants, the largest number ever charged in a cybercrime case, following a multinational investigation into a phishing scheme that operated in the United States and Egypt. Thirty-three of the 53 defendants named in the indictment have been arrested, the FBI said, and several others are being sought. The investigation, dubbed "Operation Phish Phry," began in 2007. Authorities in Egypt have charged 47 defendants linked to the phishing operation. Phishing is a form of social engineering that attempts to convince Internet users, via e-mail or other means, to provide online credentials...

The woman who took a stranger's driver's license and used it to buy a $419,000 townhouse in Fairfax County last year was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday. The scheme unraveled for Elizabeth Cabrera-Rivera, 40, not when she obtained two mortgages for the house in the stranger's name, or when she deeded the house to herself. It was when she refinanced her second mortgage, and the bank sent an overpayment check to the stranger, that Cabrera-Rivera was caught. She was arrested at the BB and T bank in Arlington County that figured out her scheme. The victim of the...

Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided six Swift & Co. plants this morning with civil search warrants, arresting illegal immigrants working at the plants. Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE public affairs officer, said they don’t have any numbers on how many people will be taken out of any of the plants and probably won’t have that number until Wednesday. She said Swift is not facing any charges right now, but the investigation is continuing. “At this point, a civil search warrant allows us to search the premises to find any illegal aliens. The strong point here is that a lot of...