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CEO Nabbed for Identity Theft From Own Employees

Posted by samzenpus on Wed Nov 01, 2006 10:49 PM
from the alright-people-I'm-going-to-need-some-maiden-names dept.
Security It's funny. Laugh.
BuzzardsBay writes "And you think your boss is a jerk? Check out this VARBusiness story about a tech CEO the feds say was using his employees' personal information to apply for loans and credit cards to the tune of $1 million. Somewhere a whole lot of businesses who bought this guy's managed-services pitch are cringing with the thought of who is taking care of their data now. And 50 employees are gonna have to sweat out their credit reports even as they look for new jobs. Now that's a lousy boss!"
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CEO Nabbed for Identity Theft From Own Employees 50 Comments More /

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  • I'm a bit slow (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dunbal (464142) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @10:52PM (#16684303)
    Hang on. And we're NOT talking about Hewlett-Packard here?
  • Now that's a lousy boss!

    Well, he's either a lousy boss, or a very creative criminal.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by timeOday (582209)
      I guess he's not a criminal until convicted, so here's hoping. I'm taking bets on whether his laywer will try to invent some creative legal defense based on his victims' employment contract. "Employees have no expectation of privacy on company-owned computer systems," or "all goods and information produced during the term of employment are sole property of Jackass Inc." you know, those kind of clauses. Or maybe the boss will sue the company for careless handling of personal information in violation of st
      • The reason you're paranoid is that I'm out to get you. See you soon.

      • Doesn't matter (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Sycraft-fu (314770) on Thursday November 02 2006, @11:31AM (#16689945)
        A company can claim that you have no expectation of privacy at work, and to a large extent they are right, still doesn't mean they can break the law. Identity theft is a crime period. It doesn't matter how you got the information. For example my parents probably could, if they wished, steal my identity. They have all the relevant personal info like my name, birth-date, address, SSN, mom's maiden name and so on. What's more, they have it all legally. Most of it they know simply by virtue that I'm their kid. However that doesn't mean they can pretend to be me, I'm not a minor they are no longer my guardians. If they applied for a credit card in my name it'd still be identity theft an/or fraud and they'd still go to jail.
  • What do you suppose happens to your identity when a dotcom with DBs full of identities are crashing and burning? If there's a chance to patch things up by selling those identities, let me tell you, I've worked for people who would have done so gladly. None of you ever joined Collegeclub.com, did you?
    • "What do you suppose happens to your identity when a dotcom with DBs full of identities are crashing and burning?"

      I expect I still have my identity no matter what.

      But, in all seriousness, I'm not worried about ID theft.

      You see, I have already destroyed my creditworthiness completely. It's hardly a risk that someone will take my info and get any kind of loan or credit card based on them.

      • You see, I have already destroyed my creditworthiness completely. It's hardly a risk that someone will take my info and get any kind of loan or credit card based on them.

        Security through financial obscurity, huh? I can dig it.

        What happens if you ever want to actually get a loan, though?

        • You steal someone else's identity, of course.
            • The trick lies in liquidating the officer instead of the gun. Unfortunately, though, it tends to attract other officers who want to liquidate you instead.
            • but I'd have to do that through a FFL dealer

              That's not actually a legal requirement (unless I missed something). I've seen firearms for sale by individuals (not FFLs) at flea markets, in newspapers, etc. Is there a law in your state, or is there a new federal law that sales have to go through FFLs?

              I actually like this idea. It would do almost nothing to prevent honest citizens from buying and selling guns, but could make it harder for criminals to buy guns. It could also hamper straw-buyers from buyi

  • The article seems light on details. Did the guy use some sort of key logger or computer filter, or did he go the low tech route and just use his employee's files from their hiring? Curiosity.
    • The article seems light on details. Did the guy use some sort of key logger or computer filter, or did he go the low tech route and just use his employee's files from their hiring? Curiosity.

      Do you have any common sense? Employers are -required- to have your SS # on file as a course of payroll/taxes.

  • 1. Incorporate
    2. ??? = Work as a subcontracing corporation
    3. Profit!!!

    (4. -- Don't release ANY legal information to your general contractor)

    I've done this for 18 years, and the tax breaks and freedoms are incredible.
      • You'll be considered an employee as far as taxation goes if more than a certain percentage of your revenue comes from only one general contractor.



        If the IRS hasn't figured this little trick out, they're kinda slow.

  • sweat out their credit reports? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SuperBanana (662181) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @11:27PM (#16684529)

    And 50 employees are gonna have to sweat out their credit reports even as they look for new jobs

    Makes you wonder why the courts don't automatically order credit reports of victims cleaned. The burden should NOT be on the victims, even if it is just a matter of sending a letter to the three agencies with a copy of the court docket or similar...

    Fun trivia I learned from the manager at my co-op bank branch today: utility (cable, phone, power, gas, etc) companies have been moving towards a new electronic check cashing system ,where your bank never gets the cancelled check back.

    Fun, if you need to prove to a credit reporting agency that you DID in fact pay a bill (or a credit line was not listed on your account) since that involves...drumroll please...sending in a copy of the cancelled checks! Likewise for electronic fund transfers and automatic credit card billing. The deck is stacked even further against consumers, just like how you have to pay to get your report if you don't live in certain states...and even if you get the report for free, you don't get your FICO score...

    • I believe your bank should be sending you copies of your "canceled" checks or providing them online. My bank does this, and they make it clear that they are for the same purpose as the real canceled checks were back in the days when banks actually shipped paper checks to the fed.
    • I work for a company in the financial services industry.

      Legislation was passed years ago (Check21) that allows for check imaging to be used as a permanent, legal record of the transaction.

      This doesn't explain why the slow-ass banks still take three days to clear your check. We have lightning fast systems and the appropriate legislation, and they are still sitting on your money. Actually, I can explain it: because it benefits them. Unfortunately, Check21 puts very few responsibilities on the banks. Th

    • Should make the perp do the letter sending.

      Do it to too many and you could be in jail for a very long time sending letters and making phone calls.

    • The deck is stacked even further against consumers, just like how you have to pay to get your report if you don't live in certain states...and even if you get the report for free, you don't get your FICO score...

      Do you know what a FICO score is? It is a measure of credit worthiness designed by a company based on statistics and probability. It is the product that is sold by a company, the Fair Isaac Corporation. It is the opinion of that company how likely you are to pay back a loan. Why do you feel you

  • Massive Installation? (Score:3, Funny)

    by HockeyPuck (141947) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @11:34PM (#16684567)
    This cracks me up...

    Compulinx also manages a massive IT infrastructure, which includes four data centers, more than 300 servers and a whopping 40 TB of storage.


    What is this? One midrange disk array?

    I bet if the editor walked into their datacenter they'd find more than 40TB...

    • You're right. Criminy, I've got about 10% of this much space on home file servers. 40TB was big 10 or maybe even 5 years ago. Not today, it isn't.

      Granted, a terabyte on enterprise class hardware costs a bit more than consumer grade stuff, but still. The little newspaper I work for has almost that much in one chassis in one rack.


    • What is this? One midrange disk array?

      I bet if the editor walked into their datacenter they'd find more than 40TB...

      Is varbusiness.com a porno site?

      • $28K per terabyte? I certainly hope that's in some sort of massive RAID that has 15 copies of the data across the continent at any given time. Or transfers at the speed of RAM.
        • $28K per terabyte?

          Well, that's only $28/GB which isn't too far off once you get into high-level hardware, 20% net utilization (dual RAID-10 arrays plus hot spares), SCSI drives that were probably built a few years ago (36/72GB disks with a higher $/GB), backups, the SAN hardware, etc.

          Even a low-end SATA storage unit runs about $2-$3/GB. And with SCSI drives you're typically looking at $6-$8/GB at the low-end with it being pretty easy to get up into the $15/GB range once you include stuff like backups
  • 1. hire lots of employees
    2. ???
    3. profit!

    at least we know what the ??? is now

  • Anybody know whatever happened to Scott Draeker? (Or the employee whose credit card was used to make payroll?...)

    • "screw it" and give up your dream, or you try to find different cash reserves.

            I have a dream about going to the Bahamas for 5 months and living a life of luxury. I figure I need about $500K to do this. It's ok if I rob a bank to finance this, then? I figure a bank is a "different cash reserve".

        • Re:It's not what you signed up for, that's for sur (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Danse (1026) on Thursday November 02 2006, @12:10AM (#16684747)
          The company needed money to continue in business. Whether it was to pay salaries or to finance acquisitions, the money was earmarked for business purposes, not a 5 month vacation in the Bahamas for the CEO.

          He isn't the one that gets to make such calls. He deserves no leniency for his actions. If he had actually made the company successful, it still wouldn't excuse him. If he had a good idea, then he should have been able to get money to finance it. If he couldn't convince people that his ideas were solid and that they would get a return on their money, then he didn't deserve to be running the company. He's like every other schmuck out there that can't launch whatever idea he has. It doesn't give anyone the right, the obligation, or the duty to commit crimes in order to finance their business.

          If anything, crimes like these need to have more severe penalties. There's far too much identity theft going on. Anyone caught doing it should be severely punished. White-collar crime in general should be punished much more severely than it is now, if only because it's so hard to build the cases in the first place. It's the same logic they're using for giving out harsh penalties for file-sharers. If the chances of getting caught are low, then the punishment must be more severe to have the desired deterrent effect.
        • Whether it was to pay salaries or to finance acquisitions, the money was earmarked for business purposes,

          I am willing to bet that the money was NOT "earmarked" for "business purposes" by these people, umm what do you call them again, oh yeah, the actual OWNERS of the money. This is theft, plain and simple.

          You're trying to say that the end justifies the means. All I did was give you a different "end" to point out the flaw in your argument. According to you: if I ki
    • ... perhaps we should take a step back and look at the reason the CEO had to resort to such tactics in the first place.

      I figure either the person in question is either a sociopath or just plain incompetent. Because when a CEO has to resort to such tactics, he/she has already failed to do their job...

    • Re:It's not what you signed up for, that's for sur (Score:4, Insightful)

      by 4iedBandit (133211) on Wednesday November 01 2006, @11:43PM (#16684617) Homepage
      Wait a minute. You want me to have sympathy for the CEO of a company who commited credit fraud using his employees confidential information?

      You know, this is really taking the whole victim mentality to the next level of insanity. "It's not his fault really, society forced him to because no one would loan him money." Give me a break!

      Theft is wrong. Stealing from your employees is NEVER excusable. Please don't ask me to have sympathy for the crook. Corporations have a myriad of ways to legally screw employees without having to resort to outright theft.

      You know, there are some things in the world that really are black or white, right or wrong. This is one of them. Please stop turning everything gray.
      • You fell into a troll's trap and modded insightful. Not bad!
      • You know, there are some things in the world that really are black or white, right or wrong. This is one of them. Please stop turning everything gray.


        I don't know ... there are different opinions on how to spell "grey" ...
    • I just think that the system should be set up to reward risk takers rather than banks that refuse to lend. It would go a long way towards improving the economy.
      If you removed the risk, they wouldn't be "risk takers" anymore. They'd just be takers.
    • If risk taking were rewarded, it wouldn't be risk. We reward success, not failure. Asking for rewards before results doesn't make sense. We may reward ingenuity, but not daring.

    • If I knew who you were, and that you had a position of authority with any company I would submit your name to the local authorities for investigation.
      I would also submit your information to your companies accountants and list of some ethical concerns.

      There is absolutely no justification for committing fraud (which is what this is) against employees, merely to stay in business.

      If a company ends up in that position it may wish to ASK the employees to support the company, but you can't require it!

      based on your
    • They wouldn't be risk takers if the system was set up to consistently reward them, now would they?
    • While some entrepreneurs in hot sectors have to beat off VCs with their bare hands,
      Now there's a mental image I definitely don't need seared into my brain. *** shudder *** They should at least wear latex gloves. :D
    • This reminds me of an ATM tech years ago. ATM as in Automated Teller Machine. He borrowed several thousands of dollars to bankroll his cocaine business. He had a deal go bad and lost all the money he was going to put back into the machine. Was he rewarded for his risk taking venture? If you count restitution, parole (yeah, no jail time as long as he made restitution payments), unemployment.
    • some entrepreneurs in hot sectors have to beat off VCs with their bare hands

      This is why I stopped looking for investors and folded my company.

        • I'm impressed how you took a post emphasizing the move towards wider availability of capital to entrepreneurs as something socialist.

          But when a system is not re-arranging capital based on a person's ability to impress investors/lendors on the merits of a business plan and other positive things - and is instead risking capital because, essentially, everyone who asks for it gets it (from where, I wonder?)... well, that's socialized business investment/lending.
      • How come this doesn't hold good when employees steal money from their bosses?

        This reminds me of when I worked for a Fortune 500 company some years back. The manager of my location *routinely* shaved time off of employee time cards in order to make his wage budget. But this guy would routinely have thieving employees arrested AND would manage to work up a big load of righteous indignation.
    • The board should fire the CEO, or if hes the majority holder, first his ownership should be distributed among the employee's whose identities he stole, then the 'new' board shuld fire him, and feel free to hire a new CEO and continue running the company.
      • If you really felt safe, then why did you post as an Anonymous Coward??

        Hey, the Coward family has been plagued by their name for years. They thought they were doing the son a favor by naming him "Anonymous".

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