NEW YORK – According to the New York Post a 32-year-old high school dropout was accused of using the Internet in a scheme to steal millions from celebrities and tycoons on Forbes magazine’s list of richest Americans.
Abraham A. was accused of using the World Wide Web to invade the personal financial lives of billionaires and corporate executives, the newspaper said.
Abraham A. a convicted swindler, allegedly breached bank, brokerage and credit-card accounts of many well know movie star and business people. He skipped No. 1 on the Forbes list, Bill Gates, perhaps feeling he was too well known.
The New York Police Department is still trying to unravel a voluminous electronic trail to determine exactly how much allegedly stole, but fear it could be well into the millions.
“He’s the best I ever faced,” said a detective from the NYPD’s Computer Investigation and Technology Unit. Abdallah A. is charged with criminal possession of forged devices, stolen property and criminal impersonation. His case has been taken over by federal investigators.
He allegedly used computers at a local library, Web-enabled cell phones and virtual voice mail for the six-month scam that involved duping credit reporting companies into providing credit reports on his rich victims, authorities said. He then used the data to gain access to credit cards and accounts at brokerage houses.
He was arrested a month ago after detectives intercepted a package meant for him, containing $25,000 worth of equipment used to manufacture and magnetize credit cards, authorities said. Carrying the package, the detectives posed as employees for a courier service and were directed where to go to meet him. He was arrested there after one detective leaped onto his car as he tried to flee, the paper said.
Abraham A. has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer declined to discuss the case. But authorities said Abraham A. was charged with credit card and bank fraud when he was 18.
