On June 11, 2022, the FBI announced that they had shut down a series of websites making about $19 million in revenue by selling stolen data. These websites located on what is called “the DARK web” were selling around 24 million stolen Social Security numbers. While this shut down needs to be applauded, one could wish it had happened soon enough to stop Adesh Alvin Bissoon who was sentenced August 2, 2022, to 8 years in prison for a $3.5 million fraud scheme using stolen Social Security numbers.
Bissoon started the scheme in 2012 and used the DARK Web to obtain victims’ Personal Identifiable Information (PII). Then Bisson and his co-conspirators used the IRS’s eAuthentication to double-check that their stolen information was accurate. Using the victim’s names, they filed fake tax returns. This scheme went on long enough to collect their COVID-19 stimulus checks in 2020.
Bissoon didn’t limit himself to government money fraud. He used the stolen information to get fake Social Security Cards and driver’s licenses to open credit card accounts in the victims’ names. Bisson then requested convenience checks in high dollar amounts, drawn against the victims’ lines of credit. Once he received the funds, he contacted the banks and claim to be a victim of fraud telling the bank they had not authorized the convenience checks. Yes, Bisson got paid twice in bank fraud.
Still, Bissoon didn’t stop there! Bissoon also fraudulently got Economic Impact Disaster Loans in the names of LLCs he’d created using those victims’ personal information and for an LLC he used to launder money. Bisson received a million dollars just from these loans.
When federal agents executed a search warrant at one of Bissoon’s residences, they found multiple driver’s licenses, approximately 200 credit and/or debit cards, and more than 10 checkbooks, all in other people’s names and seven cellphones, each of which was labeled with the name of a victim.
Great job by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and the United States Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration working together in this case.
Today’s “Fraud of the Day” is based on an article posted in the Butler Journal News on August 2, 2022
Florida man who defrauded victims, banks in Ohio sent to prison
By Michael D. Pitman: A Florida man who conspired to steal identities to fraudulently obtain credit and COVID-19 relief funds, including residents of southern Ohio, was sentenced in downtown Cincinnati to eight years in prison.
Adesh Alvin Bissoon, 43, of Miami Beach, Fla., defrauded several victims who resided in the Southern District of Ohio, which serves more than 5 million citizens in 48 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Bissoon caused at least $3.5 million in losses, including more than $1 million in COVID-19 disaster relief funds.
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