GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.–The last of three men found guilty of an identity theft ring that hit both credit unions and banks has been sentenced to prison.
U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney sentenced Cedric Smith to a prison term of 70 months. Smith was one of three Miami, Fla., residents found guilty of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
In February 2021, a grand jury charged Cedric Smith, Daja Smith and Devonte Hoskins with stealing the identities of customers of banks and members of credit unions and then using that information to commit widespread fraud. Earlier, Daja Smith was sentenced to a prison term of five years, while Hoskins received a term of six years.
According to prosecutors, the defendants identified a targeted consumer’s online account using compromised personal information they purchased from computer hackers on the Internet, then obtained the consumer’s confidential password and access to the money in the account. Prosecutors said the defendants called the member/customer posing as bank/CU security personnel, and induced the victim to share the onetime code a credit union/bank sends when they need to reset their password. Then defendants drained the victim’s account and moved the money to where they could use it for their own purposes.
The defendants, operating out of Miami, Florida, targeted victims around the U.S. in this fashion, including members of United Federal Credit Union in St. Joseph, Mich., prosecutors said.
Total losses are estimated at $1.4 million.
The Very Best in CU Reporting. For You. For Free. Or Your Money Back.
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.