A $2 million credit card fraud ring was been taken down month after a two-year investigation by the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and several local police departments, officials said today.
"This was a complex, time-consuming, cooperative investigation with our federal law enforcement partner and it revealed a more extensive degree of theft than we originally imagined," said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.
He called the criminal enterprise "sophisticated and extremely disrupting to the victims, both businesses and private people."
The investigation culminated with early morning raids at several locations in Hudson County on Friday and charges against Mohammad Sheikh, 47, of North Bergen; Secaucus residents Afzal Sheikh, 54, and Rubina Sheikh, 44, as well as Jersey City residents Quaisar Mahmood, 47, Rafiq Malik, 56, and Rauf Farooqi, 54, officials said.
They are charged with theft by deception, identify theft, money laundering and conspiracy, officials said, adding that Afzal Sheikh, Rubina Sheikh and Mohammad Sheikh have been arrested and remain in custody on $2 million bails. The other remain at large.
Leaders of the group used multiple aliases and Social Security numbers to open credit card accounts at various banks and credit card companies, DeFazio said. The cards would then be used to make nonexistent transactions at "shell" companies created by the suspects, DeFazio said, adding that the companies had no actual sales locations or inventory.
After ringing up fictitious purchases equaling several times the limit of the cards, they would abandon the cards, leaving the unpaid balances, DeFazio said. The prosecutor said the bills would be charged to the accounts of real victims but the credit card companies and banks would wind up footing the bill.
Investigators suspect some of the money was transferred to members of the ring in Pakistan via money orders and other means.
Source:http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2008/09/cops_2m_credit_card_scam_buste.html
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