Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Belarusian Creator of International Identity Theft Website

We applaud DOJ’s efforts to do its job to prosecute identity theft following a critical report from the department’s inspector general about those efforts. Criminal activities like this Belarusian one, contribute to the rise in synthetic identity theft, i.e., pieces of information from real people used to create fictional identities.

U.S. prosecutors have charged a Belarusian man with operating a Web site designed to help identity thieves use stolen financial data, including credit card numbers.

Dmitry M. Naskovets, the creator and operator of CallService.biz, was indicted Monday on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and aggravated identity theft.

He was arrested by Czech Republic authorities on Thursday. U.S. prosecutors are seeking his extradition.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan alleged Nashkovets and another man designed CallService.biz to counteract security measures put in place by financial institutions. His coconspirator has been arrested by Belarus authorities, U.S. prosecutors said.

The Web site allegedly provided English- and German-speaking individuals to persons who had stolen account information in order to beat bank screening processes requiring vocal verification for some transactions.

Prosecutors said the Web site was used by more than 2,000 identity thieves in more than 5,000 instances of fraud.