Back in 2012 I noted that gangs were looking at identity theft as the successor to bank robbery. From Los Angeles comes the news that the California Attorney General’s Office, along with the Long Beach Police and the US Postal Inspection Service did a “takedown” of the “Insane Crip” street gang; 22 members are in custody on charges that include 283 counts of conspiracy, 299 counts of identity theft, and 226 counts of grand theft.
The arrest is the culmination of a three-year investigation into the Insane Crip street gang that began after a Long Beach crime spree tied to the gang. A Long Beach Police Department detective discovered evidence containing the personal identifying information of hundreds of California residents at an address associated with the gang. The defendants had used the stolen personal identifying information to commit financial crimes, including identity theft and tax return fraud.
The defendants exchanged the stolen information via text messages to the leaders of the scheme, who would then file fraudulent tax returns, obtain the refunds and load them onto prepaid debit cards in the name of other victims. The debit cards were then used to fund the gang’s illicit activities, lavish lifestyle and to recruit members.
Kudos to all involved, but I will point out, again, that while the IRS has done more to make identity theft difficult, they’ve done nowhere near enough. Even today most of what the IRS does on this front is reactionary. While electronic returns filed now note the computer they’ve been filed from–which is a help–there is much more the IRS could do. The modest proposal I made nearly three years ago would still stop much of today’s identity theft. Yet the IRS spends money on the Annual Filing Season Program. Oh well, venting doesn’t do any good….
Tags: IdentityTheft
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