Truly scary stuff

by Phillip
(London)

I finished reading this book a few days ago, and must say that the effectiveness of their efforts is very scary. At least one of the pair was caught and punished - even if only in a limited way and by accident.

As you describe above, they really did seem to turn identity theft into a business and then they did their best to scale it up. As a businessman, that is impressive. As a person, that is pretty scary.

Their descriptions of the methods and impact they had at US casinos and on the clothing retail trade in Mexico are quite eye-opening too. They seemed to be a 2 man crime wave!

I can agree that this is a very readable book and well worth the time. The trouble is that by the end of it, you are kind of siding with the bad guys...

Editor's Comment: It is a few months since we read Identity Theft Inc. but the overriding memory of the book is of the scale and ambition of their operation. In total, they made several million US dollars - that takes work, planning and effort. Any of us 'normal' people that happened to be an unlucky victim really would have stood no chance against this pair.

Elsewhere, we look at the difficulty of bringing prosectutions against the gangs committing international credit card fraud, and similar problems will be faced if the author is to be brought to justice.

As always, we can only recommend that you read our top 10 identity theft prevention tips and follow as many of the suggestions as you can.