Indiana man jailed for counterfeit Miami Heat ticket sales.

On the same summer day that an Indiana scalper sold a $1,000 pair of counterfeit Miami Heat playoff tickets to a Coral Springs man, he was arrested at AmericanAirlines Arena for selling fake $600 tickets to undercover Miami-Dade detectives, authorities say. Tony McKibben, 44, extradited from the Hoosier State, was in Broward County court Monday morning to answer to the resulting grand theft charge.

(original news source)

Lawmakers renew push for legislation to prevent $5 billion tax ID fraud.

Tax Day is no longer just a deadline for citizens to rush and file their returns. It’s now a day for members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike —to file legislation or announce ways to prevent an estimated $5 billion in tax-identification fraud, which is particularly virulent in Florida and especially South Florida.

The effort by local lawmakers is nothing new, nor is the fact that the measures have died year-after-year in a do-nothing Congress.

On Monday, Miami-area Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Garcia and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen all promoted legislation to put an end to the practice. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson announced a bill last week.

“Something needs to be done,” said Jon Simpkins, a Miami-Dade businessman who appeared with his wife, a tax-ID fraud victim, at Garcia’s press conference.

It took the Internal Revenue Service until April 8 to supply the family their tax-refund money from last year — a week before this year’s tax-filing deadline.

“I’m surprised they haven’t fixed this yet,” Simpkins said, detailing the delays and difficulties of just getting the IRS to do its job.

But the delay in fixing the growing problem isn’t just a window into the problems with the IRS. It’s an example of a broken Congress that struggles to accomplish the most-basic of tasks — including an issue members of all parties agree on: Stopping fraud.

Last year, for instance, Sen. Nelson’s crackdown bill stalled and died in the Senate because leadership said it didn’t want to deal with any new tax issues or tax reform — except for figuring out what to do with the then-expiring payroll tax cuts and the so-called Bush tax cuts.

So even though Nelson’s bill was more of a fraud-fighting proposal, it was considered tax legislation. And it was bottled up by the advent of the so-called “fiscal cliff” and budget-sequester negotiations. The bill could face another challenge this year: the banking-and-credit industry.

Nelson wants to make it tougher for thieves to get tax refunds electronically direct-deposited on prepaid debit cards. The cards have become increasingly common ways for regular citizens to get their returns credited to a bank account electronically. But, because the cards can be purchased by phone or internet and leave few fingerprints, scammers use them as well.

Tax ID fraud is simple and lucrative. Thieves purchase Social Security numbers and names of people on the black market. Then they download tax forms electronically, plug in the stolen information and file false returns. They request refunds be sent to prepaid cards or, less often, by check.

The scam is usually pulled in January and February. Most citizens file weeks or months later. If someone used their information on a tax form, the IRS then refuses to instantly pay the citizen as it did the scammer. Victims then wait for months or, in Simpkin’s case, almost a year for their refund.

Broward Sheriff Detective Mitch Gordon warned that cracking down on debit cards won’t stop the crime entirely. But he said the cards are a good way to steal.

“One time, we had one guy who sat at a Western Union machine for six hours just putting in debit cards, putting in debit cards,” said Gordon, who estimated the office has had 400 complaints this year.

The Miami area is the top tax-related identity theft area in the nation, and Florida has nine of the top 10 cities for the fraud.

South Florida accounted for 35,914 identity-theft complaints in 2012.

“It has happened to so many people,” said Rep. Garcia. “It happened to me.”

Garcia’s bill isn’t as sweeping as Nelson’s. It would change the law to forbid the printing of a person’s entire Social Security Number on a W-2 tax form, a major primary source for thieves who obtained them from unscrupulous employees or employers.

Wasserman-Schultz, a Democrat like Garcia, wants to increase penalties and make federal prosecutors prioritize tax ID cases.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, is co-sponsoring both bills.

“These bills focus much needed attention to identity theft, a problem that is clearly not a victimless crime,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement.

Another Republican Rep., Mario Diaz-Balart, hasn’t studied the legislation but has held IRS officials to account in budget hearings. He tacked on an amendment to a budget bill that requires the agency to better track tax ID theft cases.

With such bipartisan support for such an important topic, Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, said she hopes something will pass. “It seems like a no-brainer,” she said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/15/3346174/lawmakers-renew-push-for-legislation.html

Senate Lawmakers Reveal Plan To Stop Tax ID Fraud

MIAMI (CBS4) – For the first time, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate unveiled how they plan to stop a growing national scam that’s stolen billions of dollars in tax money from Uncle Sam and legitimate taxpayers alike: tax refund fraud.

It’s the latest twist on the growing identity theft problem facing consumers here and across the country.

Critics say red tape and a massive federal agency, the IRS, delayed preventing even more losses this tax season because of conflicting marching orders from Washington lawmakers.

As CBS Miami has reported for a while now, several years ago Congress began mandating the IRS make it easier to file tax returns from home computers.

But what some critics say they didn’t realize was it would also make it easier for identity thieves to file phony returns too.

On Wednesday, Senate lawmakers finally started talking about new fixes that some critics say have already taken way too long.

“According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, we are losing over $5 billion dollars each year to the crime and now the problem is getting worse,” said Chairman Sen. Bill Nelson.

Facing a new filing deadline next week with hundreds of thousands of victims nationwide still waiting for last years’ tax refunds, Washington lawmakers are running out of time to put the tax ID thieves out of business.

Formal hearings by the Senate’s Special Committee on aging also turned the spotlight on our CBS Miami investigations into the growing scam which is now in its’ 3rd year.

“CBS, Channel 4, WFOR has really made this a cause celeb as they have tried to alert people to what is happening and these kinds of instances that our public is getting fleeced and in the process…the taxpayer is getting fleeced,” Nelson testified.

One of South Florida’s latest victims, Weston resident Leonardo Fernandez, agrees.

He just found out his wife’s’ tax refund was stolen after her tax return was rejected by the IRS. He says somebody else used her name and ID to file a phony return.

“It’s terrible, they rejected because they find out somebody else fill it out, the Income Tax paper with her name,” Fernandez said.

To keep the problem from getting even worse in the future, a series of new proposals were just filed by Senate Democrats including Bill Nelson.

Under the plan, the IRS would be required to process legitimate refunds to victims within 90 days.

It expands the use of special personal security numbers for taxpayers, and allows us to opt-out of electronic, computerized-filing.

The use of credit cards for direct refund deposits would be restricted along with multiple refunds into the same bank accounts.

A similar bill was also recently filed in the U-S House of Representatives.

The IRS estimates losses could exceed $21 billion dollars over just the next 5 years with Florida expected to remain the top spot in the nation for tax refund scams.

Bill sponsors hope these latest proposals can be passed quickly and signed into law.

But they’ve also got the budget, immigration reform and gun control to work on.

So there’s probably little chance Congress will be able to take action to fix the problem anytime soon.

And as this years’ April 15th deadline approaches, the latest group of taxpayers are now be learning their Tax ID’s have been stolen and their tax refunds have ended up in the hands of ID thieves.

And the long wait will begin all over again for a year or longer to get their legitimate refunds back from the IRS.

For more information on tax ID fraud, visit these government links:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Identity-Protection

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0014-identity-theft

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/resources/forms/affidavit.pdf

(source)

Come tax time, many refunds go to identity thieves.

An epidemic of tax-related identity theft continues to plague the Internal Revenue Service despite efforts by the agency and law enforcement officials to combat the fraud, witnesses told a Senate panel Wednesday.

“We are losing $5 billion each year to this crime, and now the problem is getting worse,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., the chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Criminals use stolen personal information to file fraudulent tax returns, usually in January, before the real taxpayers have a chance to file. By the time the victims send in their returns, it’s too late: The IRS already has mailed refund checks to the identity thieves. It can take months – even years – for the IRS to untangle the mess and send the taxpayers the refunds they’re owed.

Nine of the 10 U.S. cities hit hardest by the scam are in Florida. The Miami metropolitan area tops the list, with 35,914 cases of tax-related identity theft reported last year and the highest per capita rate of complaints, 645 per 100,000 residents.

Miami was followed by Atlanta, which had 12,992 complaints, Tampa, Fla., with 9,805, and Orlando, Fla., with 4,991.

Nationwide, cases of tax-related identity theft surged 650 percent from 2008 to 2012. In 2011, thieves filed 1.5 million undetected fraudulent tax returns and received $5.2 billion in refunds, according to an audit last year by the Department of the Treasury’s inspector general.

Witness Marcy Hossli, 57, of Lake Worth, Fla., has been a victim of identity theft through tax fraud three years in a row.

“I should never have to go through anything like this, nor should anyone else,” Hossli said. “I feel violated. It’s hard to concentrate in work. I am stressed constantly.”

Hossli told senators she still is waiting for her 2012 tax refund. She suffers from cancer and owes $4,000 in medical bills. “I really need the money,” she said.

Senators expressed frustration that the IRS hasn’t been able to do a better job at catching fraud even though criminals often use the same addresses to file multiple returns.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said thieves used the same address in Lansing, Mich., to file 2,137 tax returns, and they received $3.3 million in refunds. An address in Chicago was used to steal $900,000 in refunds through almost 800 fraudulent returns, Collins said.

“Criminal gangs have figured out that it’s cheaper and easier for them to steal taxpayers’ identities and hijack their refunds than it is to traffic in drugs, rob banks or fence stolen property,” Collins said.

“The IRS has an obligation that obviously they’re not meeting,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. “How in the world can there not be a system in place that the IRS could not catch that they’re sending 2,000 refunds to the same address?”

Tax refund thieves commonly target senior citizens, as well as low-income people and students, who might not be required to file returns.

The audit by the Treasury Department’s inspector general estimated that 76,000 senior citizens likely were victims of tax fraud identity theft in 2010, resulting in $374 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

Victims often have their identities stolen by corrupt employees at nursing homes and hospitals, Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s tax division, said in her testimony before the committee. In other cases, criminals take names from public death lists to file tax returns, she said.

“For the public the risk is clear,” Keneally said. Such crimes “can and do arise in any setting where the lure of fast money puts at risk personal identifying information, including at state agencies, student loan providers, the military, prisons, companies servicing Medicaid programs – the list is growing all too long.”

Postal workers have been compromised, robbed and in one case killed in order to steal refund checks, she said.

Prosecuting tax-refund identity theft is a national priority, she added.

Legislation Nelson introduced this week would increase jail time and fines for people convicted of tax-related identity theft and direct the IRS to close identity theft cases within 90 days. Last year, it took an average of 196 days for the IRS to close such cases.

The delays are unacceptable, Nelson said. He said victims of identity theft shouldn’t have to wait six months for their refunds, much less two years, as at least one woman in Parkland, Fla., had to do.

“Many Americans rely on getting those tax refunds back so they can pay their bills,” he added.

Nelson’s bill, co-sponsored by fellow Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York, also would ensure that victims don’t have to explain their plight to different IRS employees every time they contact the agency. Instead, the IRS would give each victim a single point of contact to help track the case.

Other provisions include restrictions that would make it harder for thieves to load stolen refunds onto prepaid cards, language that allows identity theft victims to opt out of electronic filing and prohibitions on printing Social Security numbers on Medicare ID cards and communications.

(source)

Hacker conference infiltrates Miami Beach.

More than 200 hackers have assembled in the dark conference rooms of the Fontainebleau Miami Beach with one goal in mind: attacking vulnerabilities.

Okay, it’s true that most of those attending the two-day Infiltrate Security Conference are defense contractors from various governments around the world. But unlike larger hacker conventions, such as Defcon or Black Hat, Infiltrate offers a single track for those who are focused on the offensive side of security issues, such as discovering vulnerabilities and exploiting networks and computers.

In the world of cyber security, going on the offensive is a $100 million market, said conference organizer Dave Aitel, CEO of Miami Beach-based security company Immunity Inc.

Aitel worked as a computer scientist with the NSA when he was 18 years old before he moved on to work as a consultant at @stake and then in 2002 formed his own software security company.

He created the conference, which ends Friday, three years ago as a way to bring white-hat, grey-hat and black-hat hackers together in an anonymous setting to discuss techniques to go on the offensive when being attacked by malicious hackers.

“A lot of these people are meeting up with old friends — some of whom have never met face-to-face,” he said.

Speakers at the conference spoke on issues ranging from hacking the NextGen Air Traffic Control system, why businesses should hack their attackers, and a talk from a local convicted felon who served two years in prison and was fined $171.5 million for his role in a $700 million Miami identity theft ring.

Stephen Watt, the man convicted in the theft ring, was expected to give his first public talk since his conviction on Friday. Watt created a program that was used by another Miami man, Albert Gonzalez, to steal millions of credit cards from TJ Maxx.

“You want to know all the sides of the story,” Aitel said. “And you can balance that with other speakers.”

For instance, Aitel brought on Chris Eagle, a senior lecturer of computer science at the Naval Postgraduate School who has interests in computer network operations, malware analysis and anti-reverse engineering techniques.

Each presenter at the conference had to go through a technical review board to make sure the information presented is both interesting and novel, Aitel said.

“We often talk to them on the phone and discuss their paper more in depth to see if they are in fact deep in the field or dancing around the subject,” he said.

The conference also holds formal training for attendees to discuss web hacking, unethical hacking and a master class focused on modern exploit development.

(source)

Hospital Identity Theft Found at Some South Florida Hospitals

Pictures taken in February and March of 2012 show Alci Bonannee and Chante Mozley, two convicted identity thieves, withdrawing cash from several banks in Broward County.

The federal government says the money came from stolen tax refunds that belonged to people like Miami resident Joseph Szot.

“When I filed a return, the accountant told me you can’t file because somebody filed already,” Szot said.

And just how did Bonannee and Mozley get Szot’s tax refund? Federal authorities said it happened while he was a patient at South Miami Hospital.

The pair is accused of paying respiratory therapist Betty Cole for patients’ personal information including their social security number. Internal Revenue Service Special Agent in Charge of the Miami office Tony Gonzalez said: “The bad guys that are able to get these social security numbers are buying them from employees that work at these hospitals and these medical centers which are sold up to $150 each.”

The breach at South Miami Hospital happened between June of 2011 and February 2012 and affected 834 patients.

In a statement, Baptist Health which operates South Miami Hospital, said “the employee was terminated, and efforts are underway to prosecute this individual to the fullest extent possible.”

The south Miami case is the latest hospital ID theft to surface in South Florida. Since 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services has received reports that hundreds of thousands of patients have been affected by breaches at hospitals across South Florida. The hospitals with the largest breaches include Memorial Healthcare System with 111,650 patients affected, the University of Miami Health System with 66,065 people, Mount Sinai Medical Center with 2,600 patients and Jackson Health System with 2,062 patients.

Although many hospitals have had more breaches, a federal act called HITECH only requires that medical centers report breaches that affect more than 500 patients. Gonzalez said they’ve seen a case where “gentleman who provided a service of taking elders home after being seen at a hospital, would cut their little tabs off their wristbands and with the patient number, walk into the hospital, look at the computer and get a social security number without ever being an employee of that hospital.”

In April of last year, Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood notified about 9,500 patients that two employees were fired because they may have inappropriately accessed their personal information with the intent to process fraudulent tax returns. In a statement, Memorial said it “continues to enhance its security controls and monitoring systems, limit user access in all physicians’ offices, and has reinforced the importance of the privacy and confidentiality of patients’ information with its staff and affiliated physicians’ employees.”

Last year, Jackson North had a breach that affected over 500 patients. Ed O’Dell, the spokesperson for Jackson Health system says in that case it “was a volunteer in a patient care area and he was apparently taking pictures of patient information.”

Since then, Jackson has implemented new rules for volunteers prohibiting them from using smartphones in patient areas. Linda Quick, President of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association, a trade association, said the industry is not immune to breaches. She told NBC 6: “proportionate to the number of people who are seen in our member institutions, it’s not pervasive in any way.”

Szot doesn’t blame South Miami Hospital. He said he believes companies in general should find a way to reduce the risk of security breaches.

“I think corporations use Social Security numbers too much for identifying you, putting the information out to too many people,” he said.

The IRS said hospitals have been cooperating with them to combat identity theft, a growing crime.

So how can you avoid becoming a victim at a hospital?

“You do not have to provide your Social Security number, but you do have to provide enough information for you to be distinguishable from other people,” Quick said.

A hospital may still require your social security number to verify coverage if your insurance provider only identifies you that way, but experts say you should ask questions before handing your number over.

“You don’t always have to give it. If they ask for it, make sure that there’s a valid reason to receive it, but it doesn’t often have to be given,” Postal Inspector Blanca Alvarez said.

The IRS says identity theft affects many industries, not just hospitals. According to HHS reports, health insurance companies have had breaches affecting millions of Floridians.

(source)

ID thefts of 49 cops lead to crime ring, feds say.

The investigation began in March with the discovery that 49 Aventura police officers and six other people connected to the city government were victims of identity theft and tax fraud in the 2011 income tax season, authorities said.

On Tuesday, the inquiry led to six South Florida residents being indicted on charges they operated a major identity theft ring out of a Pompano Beach home on the 1200 block of Northeast Fifth Street.

The four men and two women are accused of using the money to do everything from make child support payments online to take vacations in Orlando and rent BMWs at Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami airports.

Brothers Jeffery McCarthy and Christopher McCarthy, their girlfriends Marysol Hernandez and Teresa Calderon, cousin Floyd Harper, and friend Brian Gamble, all in their 20s and 30s, face multiple counts of fraud and identity theft in federal court. They all deny the allegations.

The fraud involved filing unauthorized income tax returns on behalf of victims and opening lines of credit, investigators said.

According to court records filed by detectives, the Aventura Police Department discovered earlier this year that 49 police officers, a civilian employee of the department, a retiree, three other city workers and a spouse had all been victimized by tax fraud and identity theft in the prior year.

Detectives wrote in court records that they uncovered a link to the Pompano Beach home the McCarthy brothers shared and found that the Internet service at that address had been used to file about 432 tax returns in a two-week period in January.

Investigators also found that USAA Federal Savings Bank employees were conducting a separate fraud investigation regarding the same residence related to about $2 million in lines of credit opened using victims’ names and variations of the same Pompano Beach address. The six were arrested last month.

(original post)

Tax Refund Fraud Victims Getting Left Behind

MIAMI – Tax refund fraud has kept federal prosecutors in South Florida busy as the crime continues to grow in popularity. Just this year, two former NFL players pleaded guilty to taking part in tax refund fraud.

“Identity theft, tax refund scams are really no less than a tsunami that is barreling towards us,” said U.S. attorney Wifredo Ferre.

For victims like South Dade’s Lauri King, waiting for help from the Internal Revenue Service is getting harder. She still doesn’t know when the agency may get around to mailing out her refund.

“I think they are overwhelmed,” King said of the IRS. “I think this is something they never planned for, never expected to happen.”

King filed her tax refund seven months ago. She expected to get her refund a few months later, but continues to wait for the IRS to finally act.

“Just two weeks ago, I mentioned to my husband, did we ever get our IRS refund and he said, ‘No,’” King said. “So we called and actually got to talk with a person and she informed us that we had an issue with identity theft.”

Miami has the highest fraudulent tax return rate in the nation according to Ferre.

“Over 74,000 potentially fraudulent returns filed in Miami resulting in $280 million in bogus returns in 2010,” Ferre said. “The city of Miami per capita numbers of fraudulent returns based on id theft was 46 times the national average…this is absolutely outrageous.”

While the IRS investigates an estimated $5.2 billion dollars worth of phony tax refunds nationwide, tax payers like Lauri King are running out of patience while she waits for her tax refund.

“I feel like I’m nobody; I feel like whatever happens, happens,” King said. “It’s a very defeating feeling, you work all year long, you’re one little bit of change you get can back to have a little freedom with. Nope, just a name, just a number that’s all.”

Several weeks ago CBS4 News asked the IRS how many identity theft victims were still waiting to get their tax refunds? The agency said it’s not releasing that information publicly and wouldn’t even let CBS Miami go inside its Plantation Customer Service Center with a camera to talk with taxpayers who are critical of the way the agency’s treating them.

The agencies local customer service offices are so crowded, warning signs are often posted before noon that they don’t have any more time to meet with taxpayers.

“I don’t see anything to assist them with getting a refund or getting the credit processed and going foward in any kind of expedited basis,” Miami tax lawyer Kevin Packman said.

Packman said federal prosecutors are making progress arresting the scammers, but he believes more needs to be done to help the victims and warns victims like Lauri, “Could still be dealing with this somewhere for 12-18 months.”

CBS4’s Al Sunshine asked if he’s heard of people dealing with this for more than a year? Packman answered “Yes, definitely.”

The IRS insists it’s changing procedures, tightening up its electronic processing systems to avoid more scams next season. But what about getting tax fraud victims’ legitimate refunds back this year?

In a prepared statement, the IRS said:

“Refund times can vary depending on the complexity of the case, and we understand the frustration that taxpayer may have that have been identity theft victims. Along with taking steps toward faster resolution of identity theft cases, we are continuously improving the way we track and report on the status of all identity theft cases. We believe these improvements will reduce the time to work identity theft cases in coming filing seasons so that honest taxpayers will receive their refunds sooner. Additionally, better tracking and reporting means that we can spot – and correct – any flaws in the system more quickly.” – Michael Dobzinski, IRS Media Relations Specialist

Still, with bills mounting and the holiday shopping season right around the corner, victims like Lauri think seven months is way too long for the IRS to get her refund back to her.

“The working public needs help to resolve issues like this,” King said. “It’s hard enough going to work every day and now you’re having your money stolen on top of it and then you have to prove your identity to make sure you’re the correct person. I don’t know how far it’s gone, is it just the IRS check, is it other things? Where does it stop, how does the IRS stop it from happening again? Where does it end, does it happen next year, does it happen a year after that?”

A recent Inspector Generals’ report warned these scams could cost Uncle Sam $21 billion dollars in fraudulent tax refunds over the next 5 years. The IRS continues to ask victims to be patient while they wait for their legitimate refund checks to be mailed out.

But it still declines comment on what it’s doing to make sure next year taxpayer refunds end up with the people who earned them, and not the criminals who’ve been so successful stealing them.

For more Information:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Identity-Protection

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

(original source)

Marine Pleads Guilty To Tax ID Theft Of Other Marines

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael B. Steinbach, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, and José A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), Miami Field Office, announced that Jobson Cenor, 23, of North Miami, pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in connection with an identity theft tax refund fraud scheme. Sentencing for Cenor is scheduled for December 14, 2012. He faces a possible maximum statutory sentence of 22 years in prison.

According to documents filed in court, in 2011, Cenor and co-conspirator Dorothy Boulin agreed on a plan to use stolen personal identifying information (names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers) of individuals to file fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds. On July 12, 2012, Dorothy Boulin was sentenced to 70 months imprisonment by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore.

According to documents filed and statements made in court, in late 2011 and early 2012, defendant Cenor provided Boulin with more than a hundred names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers of U.S. Marines, many of whom were serving in Cenor’s unit in Afghanistan. Cenor provided the personal identity information to Boulin by creating draft messages in e-mail accounts with the personal identifying information and then sending Boulin the log-in information for the e-mail accounts.

On January 17 and January 19, 2012, Boulin used the personal identifying information of several Marines to submit fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds. On February 9, 2012, law enforcement searched Boulin’s residence and found several lists that had the name, dates of birth and social security numbers of U.S. Marines. Boulin identified Cenor as the individual who had provided the lists. On that same day, Cenor and Boulin had a telephone conversation in which they discussed splitting the proceeds of the identity theft tax refund scheme. During that call, Cenor directed Boulin could keep his share of the proceeds until he returned from overseas.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI and IRS-CI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael N. Berger.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov

IT Services encourages student use of multiple, unique passwords.

Password safety is a practice that is sometimes easily forgotten in a day and age where everything is computerized and requires a password. However, its importance is as relevant as ever.

“Although we haven’t had a major breach that has affected over 100 people since 2005, we normally see about 30 individual Miami accounts compromised per month.” Joe Bazeley, Information Security Officer at Miami University, said.

A compromised Unique ID password can result in grade, account and financial information being stolen, according to Bazely. However, he offered several easy ways that students can protect their passwords.

“Two of the most common password mistakes students make are having weak passwords and only incrementing them when they need [to be] changed,” Bazeley said.

Bazeley said most students simply choose a normal word, capitalize the first letter and put a number at the end when making their Unique ID password. This makes it easier to guess someone’s password, according to Bazeley.

“This mistake can easily be prevented by using passwords that don’t spell out actual words and can easily be remembered by the student.” Bazeley said.

For example, Bazeley suggests making a password something like “r3dH@wk11” instead of something simple such as “Redhawk11.”

The most common mistake, however, is using the same password for multiple sites, according to Bazely.

“Then, if someone gets your password at one site, they can log in as you at many different sites. So if you use the same password at Facebook and at Miami, if I get your Facebook password then I can go into your Miami account.” Bazeley said.

This can be prevented by simply coming up with a unique, strong password for each account, whether it be at Miami, on Facebook or on an online bank account.

While these tips on creating a password can protect a student’s account, compromised accounts are often due to preventable circumstances, according to Cathy McVey, senior director for Information Technology communication.

“[One example is] if you’re at the library and you login, but walk away,” McVey said. “If you don’t log out before you walk away, anybody can go onto your account. They can use your computer and have access to all your info.”

“Also, one big problem on the internet is ‘Phishing,’” McVey said. “This is where somebody sends an email that claims and looks to be from a trusted source such as Miami University or a students’ bank in order to obtain private account information.”

McVey said neither Miami nor a student’s bank will ever ask for password information. If a student receives an email that asks for such info, the email should be ignored and reported, according to McVey.

While students must take an active role in the protection of their passwords and account info, Miami University also takes several steps to protect students, according to Bazeley.

“Miami systems are configured with what we call the 10-10-10 rule, which means that if a user account enters 10 wrong passwords within a 10 minute period of time that the account will be locked out for 10 minutes.” Bazeley said.

This prevents hackers from using systems that guess your password thousands of times per second until it’s discovered.

Additionally, Miami University has a system that automatically disables spam, which protects students from Phishing attacks, according to Bazeley.

Other preventative measures taken by Miami include mandatory password changes and logout times, according to McVey.

“We also require students to change their password every 180 days,” McVey said. “Sites such a Niihka and Bannerweb automatically log out after 15 minutes of inactivity to ensure that nobody can get onto your computer if you leave it. However, people can still access your account within that time, so it’s important for students to log out before leaving their computer.”

(original source)