There Are Consequences For This
There Are Consequences For This
September 16, 2003 -- A cyber con artist went on a $1.1 million spending spree after stealing credit cards and confidential personal information from more than 1,000 people, the feds charge.
Joel Juste, an unemployed 27-year-old, snapped up a 2002 Mercedes G500 and funded a lavish lifestyle after pulling off his scam, Manhattan federal investigators said yesterday.
He now faces up to 85 years in prison after he was charged with 10 federal charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, access-device fraud, computer fraud and identification-document fraud.
A federal indictment unsealed yesterday said Juste, who owns a $300,000 home in West Orange, N.J., allegedly obtained from unnamed co-conspirators lists of people who were being issued new credit cards.
After stealing the cards as they were being mailed out, he hacked into credit reporting agencies' computer databases to obtain birth dates, addresses and Social Security numbers of the credit-card owners, the feds said.
These details enabled him to allegedly activate more than 1,000 cards between June 2000 and June 2001.
The feds moved yesterday to confiscate Juste's allegedly ill-gotten luxuries, including the Mercedes.
"He has received a tremendous amount of money through his scheme, which has supported a high lifestyle," prosecutor Anthony Barkow said at a brief court hearing yesterday.
Magistrate Judge Frank Mass denied Juste bail at the hearing, finding that he was a "danger to the community" and likely to attempt to flee New York.
Juste was not required to enter a plea.
Juste was sent to prison for up to three years on forgery and attempted grand-larceny charges just after the alleged federal crimes were committed, the court was told.
The latest case of identification fraud and credit-card theft comes after a Long Island computer-company employee was arrested on charges he masterminded the biggest ID theft in U.S. history.
Philip Cummings, 33, who worked at Teledata Communications in Bay Shore, L.I., was charged last November with allegedly hacking into the personal credit histories of more than 30,000 people to pick-pocket their money from bank accounts.
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