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ChoicePoint data fraudster jailed

16/02/2006 17:21:26

A man was jailed last week for his role in a large-scale identity theft from customers of ChoicePoint, the US credit referencing agency.

The firm was fined $15 million (£8 million) last month for a breach in its data security which led to 800 customers' details being plundered, and was told to revamp its security programme – and one of the men who took advantage of its laxness has been jailed for a decade in Los Angeles.

Oluwatunji Oluwatosin, a Nigerian national, was also told to pay $2 million to ChoicePoint and $6 million to banks which suffered credit card losses resulting from his actions – although this money seems unlikely to be repaid in full.

A large number of further arrests are expected – although Mr Oluwatosin's ill-gotten gains, taken from customers' bank accounts, will be difficult to track down and are thought to be largely located in Africa.

ChoicePoint was fined after apparently missing many warning signs that fraud attempts were on the cards – including con artists applying for multiple accounts from the same fax machines and various mismatched or incomplete details slipping through the net in rogue applications.



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