By Nigel Thorpe
Senior English Editor
Albawaba.com - Amman
Using computers in a local library, Web-enabled cell phones, virtual voicemail, and a tattered copy of Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans, a busboy at the Zaytoon (Olive) Restaurant, Brooklyn, allegedly stole millions of dollars from celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Warren Buffett, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Ross Perot and Ted Turner. The complex web of deception spun by 32-year-old Abraham Abdullah slowly unraveled when the painstaking policework of cybercops Michael Fabozzi and Jahmal Daise uncovered the largest Internet ID theft in cyberspace history.
Abdallah, a resourceful Palestinian high-school dropout, is suspected of stealing millions of dollars by the cunning use of the Web “to invade the personal lives and finances of celebrates, billionaires and corporate executives”, reports nypost.com.
Police described the scam as one of the most ambitious identity-theft schemes they have ever seen as they backtracked down a complex electronic trail to discover the identify of all Abdallah’s alleged victims and determine exactly how much has been stolen. A police spokesperson revealed that the suspect had used more than 400 stolen credit card numbers to buy approximately $100,000 of computer equipment and gold coins.
”All those people (the 400 names on Forbes’ list) have not been compromised,” said Chief of Detectives William Allee. “The ones we believe have been compromised, we’ve contacted.” Bill Gates, the number one name on Forbes’ list, was not hit in the scam because, sources suggest, “he is just too well known.”
Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik described Abdallah as “someone who was very innovative, very creative …….. He didn’t try to pry. He was very organized. He would go one step at a time to build his database.”
Abdallah’s meticulous, step by step preparation drew grudging admiration from the “cyberhounds” who are still scenting out his devious trail. Step 1 in the elaborate scam involved computer and Web-based research which gleaned personal and confidential data about his intended victims. In step 2, Abdallah used Social Security numbers and mothers’ maiden names to take on, like a human chameleon, the victim’s identity. Under the guise of his assumed persona, he “duped companies, including Equifax, TRW and Experian into providing detailed credit reports on his rich victims,” the New York Times reported.
In the third and final step of the scam, Abdallah gained access to “credit card accounts at such prestigious brokerage houses and investment banks as Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments,” explained the NY Times sources. For nearly six months, the elusive virtual Abdallah netted millions “remaining nothing more than an electronic pulse on the Web.” On the streets of New York, Abdallah also kept a low profile dispatching couriers to pick up packages ordered in his victims’ names and deliver them to a second “layer” of couriers who would finally “drop” the packages into mail boxes rented under assumed names.
The trail of evidence eventually led police to mailboxes rented by Abdallah under the names of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and James Cayne, head of Bear Stearns, court papers revealed. The box rentals had been arranged with a few phone calls and faxes on what appeared to be corporate stationery.
“He’s the best I ever faced,” said Detective Michael Fabozzi of the NYPD’s Computer Investigation and Technology Unit.
“You rarely run into someone this good,” added Detective Jahmal Daise of the Manhattan South detective squad.
Like many criminals before him, Abdallah’s downfall was, it is alleged, his attempt to steal too much, for too long. It was his alleged attempt to transfer, by e-mail request, 10,000,000 dollars from a Merrill Lynch account belonging to Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems that brought the elaborate scheme crashing to the ground. The unusual request “raised red flags,” said the police. Siebel confirmed that he had not made the request and Merrill Lynch contacted the police.
The cops then set up a classic “sting operation” using surveillance cameras and global tracking devices to follow the movements of packages picked up at the 29 John St. boxes Abdullah had allegedly rented in the names of Paul Allen and James Cayne.
Abdullah’s alleged cyberspace crime eventually ended one month ago as he tried to escape a police trap in an auto shop where it is alleged he had arranged to pick up a package. Sensing something was wrong, Abdullah “hit the gas” but an intrepid Fabozzi leaped onto the car, climbed through the open sunroof, and arrested the fugitive as he sat behind the wheel of his 2000 Volvo.
Abdallah was charged with multiple counts of criminal impersonation, forgery and fraud, and is being held on a one million dollar bail. The police discovered that Abdallah has a long record of arrests for various schemes, and at the time of his current arrest was on supervised release for a federal bank fraud conviction. His arrests include three in the United States and one in the Virgin Islands for trying to cash a phony $50,000 check.
Experts cite Abdallah’s case as a glaring example of how access to private data on the Internet has helped make identity fraud one of the fastest growing
“white-collar crimes”.
Martin Biegelman, a former Postal Service inspector recalled using Abdallah “as a reformed criminal” to make a training video designed to combat credit card fraud. “He talked about fraud, how easy it was. He said he wasn’t going to do it again,” Biegelman explained.
Abdallah’s brother Ahmed told the New York Post that “Abdallah had never been in trouble with the law and would never do what he’s been accused of.” If the jury disagrees with Ahmed, the human cyber-chameleon is likely to spend many more years in a barred cage.
