Amazon was the biggest of a handful of major tech companies to be hit in a simple scam that saw Brazilian nationals steal the identities of people ordering alcohol online. When Frankie DiGiacco, a former prosecutor for the Southern California branch of the Justice Department, saw the scam, he couldn’t believe it had worked. It was so simple, he says, he was surprised that ride-share and delivery companies hadn’t spotted it.
What struck DiGiacco, who is now a partner at law firm Hillier DiGiacco, was how easy the scheme should have been to prevent, he says. To steal identities, the suspects used basic tricks: For instance, if they were delivering alcohol, they would ask customers for proof of age and use phones to photograph drivers’ licenses and other ID cards. Photos were then used as the basis for fake identification cards.
Thousands of people took rides with one of the accused criminals or had goods delivered by them. According to the California Justice Department complaint, from mid-2018 through to January 2020, using five identities, including Farinha’s and Arantes’ real identities, the accused did more than 7,000 rideshares on Uber.
An Uber spokesperson said the company itself initially uncovered the fraud and alerted authorities in Boston. The scheme was sophisticated and international in scope, the spokesperson says. “We are grateful for the investigative work done by federal agents that helped dismantle this operation and hold those responsible.
nice