NASSAU, Long Island -- Authorities arrested a 17-year-old high-school student they believe created up to 1,000 bogus credit cards using card data and PINs from victims around the world.
Nassau Police Commissioner James Lawrence said he believes Loren Anderson's scam netted more than $100,000, according to a New York Post report.
Lawrence said Anderson had been stealing identities for a year and using the bogus cards to withdraw money from ATMs. Lawrence called the scam "a pretty sophisticated operation," adding that Anderson used the Internet to obtain credit-card information and personal identification numbers from India and Sweden.
Detective Sgt. Lucy Guido said Anderson started his scam in Chapel Hill, N.C., where neighbors said he dropped out of a charter school for gifted students. She said Anderson met Eric Slutsky, 18, and his friend Terrence Walker, 18 -- both of Long Island -- on the Internet, and they became involved in the scheme.
According to the Post, the scam was discovered on March 24, when two Nassau police officers saw Slutsky acting suspiciously at an ATM inside a 7-Eleven.
The officers said they saw marijuana and pills in plain sight in his car, and arrested him. When they searched his car, they allegedly found several credit cards, along with Post-it Notes containing PINs for each card. That began the investigation that led to Walker and Anderson.
Anderson had been living alone in a $2,000-a-month apartment in an exclusive Long Island neighborhood for the past month. The complex manager said Anderson paid $6,000 in advance.
Police confiscated $61,000 in cash, along with a computer and equipment used to make the phony cards, from the apartment.
Slutsky and Anderson were both charged with grand larceny, identity theft and criminal possession of a forged instrument. Slutsky, released on $2,000 bail, was also charged with drug possession.
Walker was charged only with criminal facilitation for driving Anderson and Slutsky to ATMs.
