DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - CALIFORNIA: CREDIT INFORMATION & THE IDENTITIES OF CALIFORNIA FIREFIGHTERS STOLEN & THAN USED BY JIHADISTS?!?

Identity theft scam involving firefighters from VC may have terrorism connection
By Kim Oakley

An identity theft scam involving credit cards that affected hundreds of Cal Fire firefighters across the state, also hit several who live or work in Valley Center. What’s more, the ID theft has suspicious implications that could connect it to terrorism.

Experts say terrorists are “regularly schooled in the art of subsisting off credit card fraud,” while abroad and in the U.S.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology and Terrorism on July 9, 2002 FBI agent Dennis Lormel reported, “an Al-Qaeda terrorist cell in Spain used stolen credit cards… for numerous purchases for the cell.” He added, “targeting this type of activity and pursuing links to terrorist financing will likely result in the identification and dismantlement of previously unknown cells.”

A month earlier, before the committee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, the General Accounting Office testified that, “the events of September 11… have heightened concerns about the role identify fraud plays in facilitating terrorism and other serious crimes.” More troubling is a “synergistic growth among transnational crime groups and terrorist networks.”

Upon careful analysis, services and items purchased with firefighters’ cards include flowers, IBM computers, laptops, software, a Global Positioning System, chemistry set, clothes, shoes, a limousine ride, Church’s Chicken, soccer gear, along with a donation to the Islamic Relief Fund.

Multiple transactions occurred at UPS, Wal Mart, Best Buy, Yahoo.voz and Blizzard.com.

Card activity occurred in Arizona, Australia, New York, India, Dallas, France, Germany, South Carolina, Spain, Florida and the United Kingdom.

“My bank called me when 11,000 dollars worth of transactions occurred one night—all at the same time in different places,” said Steven Io, a Cal Fire captain who works in Soquel, a quiet coastal town in Santa Cruz County.

To date, over a $100,000 worth of fraudulent credit card charges have been documented, involving an estimated 200 firefighters.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Identity theft scam involving firefighters from VC may have terrorism connection