Carder set up ‘credit card factory’

[Kontik]

Carder set up ‘credit card factory’​

Benjamin Harvey-Langton rolled into Winnipeg last winter in a posh Mustang GT, booked himself into a deluxe downtown hotel and rented a plush luxury condo — a place to get down to business.
His occupation: being a key player in the largest credit card fraud operation ever uncovered in Manitoba’s history.​

On Wednesday, the 28-year-old international high-flyer left the downtown courthouse for prison after being sentenced to six years behind bars for his role in an ultra-sophisticated scam.
Harvey-Langton previously pleaded guilty to 66 charges, including possessing, using or trafficking in large amounts of illegally-obtained credit card data and participation in a criminal organization.
“I have no hesitation in stating that this was a very serious offence,” Judge Cynthia Devine said in a lengthy written decision. “Although the actual financial losses were small and all property has been recovered, the potential losses were of a magnitude not before seen in Manitoba,” she said.
Harvey-Langton and an accused co-conspirator were nabbed outside a Regent Avenue camera store Nov. 23 after trying to use a forged credit card to buy a DSLR camera. In searching the Mustang, cops found another 47 counterfeited cards.
But it wasn’t until police searched the rented Bannatyne Avenue condo that the case became unlike any other seen in the province.
There, detectives found a veritable “credit card factory” of computers, blank cards and card-making machines, along with 2,447 card numbers and the personal ID information of 2,438 people, Devine said.
Searches of Harvey-Langton’s computer revealed chat logs showing he was in “communication with an international underworld of credit fraudsters” for months or years, said Devine.
The Winnipeg “hit” — purchasing and fencing Canon DSLR’s for cash — was being done to generate money to “invest” in ATM fraud, she added.
Born in Nice, France, Harvey-Langton immigrated to England and studied international business in Germany. It was there he was introduced to the “criminal business” of credit card fraud, court heard.
In 2010, he was sentenced to a year in jail in the U.S. but deported back to England before the sentence was up. Being caught failed to deter him, said Devine.
“(Harvey-Langton) always hoped to be wealthy and successful and that it was almost an addiction with him to have a luxe lifestyle,” Devine said of his lawyer’s description of his motivations. “The motive was purely financial gain and greed.”
“He has never had a job,” said Devine. “As he told police, he just ‘does fraud.’”
Devine said she was reluctant to impose a lighter sentence to see him deported sooner. When he’s in jail, she said, his opportunities to commit fraud are severely hampered.
“Deporting him early would simply unleash him again,” Devine said.
Co-accused Kevin Guo (he and Harvey-Langton met in a Montreal comic-book store) remains before the courts.
Harvey-Langton also faces charges in Ontario and Quebec, court heard.

 

[bravo1]

Carder set up ‘credit card factory’​

Benjamin Harvey-Langton rolled into Winnipeg last winter in a posh Mustang GT, booked himself into a deluxe downtown hotel and rented a plush luxury condo — a place to get down to business.
His occupation: being a key player in the largest credit card fraud operation ever uncovered in Manitoba’s history.​

On Wednesday, the 28-year-old international high-flyer left the downtown courthouse for prison after being sentenced to six years behind bars for his role in an ultra-sophisticated scam.
Harvey-Langton previously pleaded guilty to 66 charges, including possessing, using or trafficking in large amounts of illegally-obtained credit card data and participation in a criminal organization.
“I have no hesitation in stating that this was a very serious offence,” Judge Cynthia Devine said in a lengthy written decision. “Although the actual financial losses were small and all property has been recovered, the potential losses were of a magnitude not before seen in Manitoba,” she said.
Harvey-Langton and an accused co-conspirator were nabbed outside a Regent Avenue camera store Nov. 23 after trying to use a forged credit card to buy a DSLR camera. In searching the Mustang, cops found another 47 counterfeited cards.
But it wasn’t until police searched the rented Bannatyne Avenue condo that the case became unlike any other seen in the province.
There, detectives found a veritable “credit card factory” of computers, blank cards and card-making machines, along with 2,447 card numbers and the personal ID information of 2,438 people, Devine said.
Searches of Harvey-Langton’s computer revealed chat logs showing he was in “communication with an international underworld of credit fraudsters” for months or years, said Devine.
The Winnipeg “hit” — purchasing and fencing Canon DSLR’s for cash — was being done to generate money to “invest” in ATM fraud, she added.
Born in Nice, France, Harvey-Langton immigrated to England and studied international business in Germany. It was there he was introduced to the “criminal business” of credit card fraud, court heard.
In 2010, he was sentenced to a year in jail in the U.S. but deported back to England before the sentence was up. Being caught failed to deter him, said Devine.
“(Harvey-Langton) always hoped to be wealthy and successful and that it was almost an addiction with him to have a luxe lifestyle,” Devine said of his lawyer’s description of his motivations. “The motive was purely financial gain and greed.”
“He has never had a job,” said Devine. “As he told police, he just ‘does fraud.’”
Devine said she was reluctant to impose a lighter sentence to see him deported sooner. When he’s in jail, she said, his opportunities to commit fraud are severely hampered.
“Deporting him early would simply unleash him again,” Devine said.
Co-accused Kevin Guo (he and Harvey-Langton met in a Montreal comic-book store) remains before the courts.
Harvey-Langton also faces charges in Ontario and Quebec, court heard.

combination of bad luck and unpreparedness

 

[djemw8]

"Co-accused" is Kelix, if someone can remember him on this forum..

 

[vinokur]

That's why you should use truecrypt and not keep work stuff at your home.

 

[ProfessionalsOnly]

Hell yes I knew that guy. Too bad...

 

[jamal911]

lol this is a big joke...if you make the cards why would you go card yourself...that is just ultimate greed....and keep the equipment and your own house at that lol

 

[ProfessionalsOnly]

Not really, they just did it bad and got lazy

 

[TheRayMan]

wow does the media exaggerate. are we an international underground criminal network? i thought it was just a place to sell some shit. not like we all work together.

and a "factory"? i bet he had a printer, a heat stamp machine, an embosser and an msr. if he was carding to "invest" in atm fraud, he did not have a factory. but good post, its nice to read this and learn from others mistakes. in my opinion, his mistake was getting caught in store. how does that even happen? LP cant touch you nor would they know for weeks, and if it is a call hold get the card back and walk out? i dont understand.

 

[ProfessionalsOnly]

There was much much more to this then getting busted instore. The media did not say the real story but I personally know what happened, and it involves ratting. the police knew they were going to be there which is how they ended up being outside the store to arrest them when they walked out.

 

[bossiam]

FUCKKING KELIX BROOO your missed !

---------- Сообщение добавлено в 12:46 PM ---------- Предыдущее сообщение размещено в 12:39 PM ----------

Fuck this was awile ago he was a good cat .. working in manitoba is fuckked becasue its not regular police its RCMP

 

[bossiam]

Winnipeg: a favorite hub for fraudsters?
James Turner - October 3rd, 2012

Why Winnipeg?

That’s the question that kept coming to my mind during Ben Harvey-Langton’s sentencing hearing today in provincial court.

The largest credit card fraud operation ever uncovered in Manitoba’s history. (Link is to my report on the case, which was never revealed by Winnipeg police that I can see.)

Let that rattle in your brain for a bit and realize the magnitude of what Harvey-Langton and his co-conspirators were trying to accomplish.

Judging from the facts of the case, Harvey-Langton is no dummy. He’s a grad-school educated whip-smart scam artist who seems to know his way around corners of the Internet most people don’t know even exist. He’s skilled in fake ID’s, computers and world travel.

”Harvey-Langton was born in Nice, France. He moved to England when he was 17 years old. He lived with his mother, step-father and sister. He studied Psychology, receiving an Honour’s degree. He went to New Zealand and obtained his private pilot’s licence. He went to Germany and studied international business at the Schiller International University in Heidelberg. It was there that he was introduced to the criminal business of credit card fraud …”

“… He was not only obtaining, but also sharing, stolen credit card data over the internet.

He was known in the fraudulent credit card business as a “dumps” buyer.

He purchased a card embosser from China on May 30, 2011 over the internet.

He was in communication with people who were finding additional illegal carding sites and new ways of fraudulently obtaining credit card data, such as a new way of IP straining.

He was visiting illicit internet websites with names such as “Little Snitch Program”, “******” and “carder.market”.

He was in the process of purchasing a new identity complete with a false passport, perhaps Finnish, “as it opens more doors to a new identity in the EU outside of Finland,” and other personal identification cards.” (Judge Devine decision)

But for some reason, Harvey-Langton and his co-conspirators (one who went by the curious Internet handle of “Darky”) chose our fair city as home base to set up their scheme.

I keep wondering why. Harvey-Langton met the other co-conspirator in Montreal and for whatever reason chose Winnipeg to set up the hub of operations.

Weird thing is, Harvey-Langton had used fake credit cards to book first-class passed from southern Africa in August [and stayed in high-ticket hotels on the way] to find his way through Johannesburg to London and then on to Montreal. Ostensibly the trip was to visit his sister in Quebec with a [unfulfilled] side-trip planned to Churchill.

It wasn’t to be.

“Communications once within Canada in September 2011 show he was in Montreal, northern Quebec, then in Ontario, using false credit cards again for cars, flights and hotels. He characterized his criminal activity as “working really hard”, complaining that he hadn’t gone out in over two months and was completely wasted.

He is currently subject to criminal investigations and/or charges in Ontario and Quebec. The Winnipeg investigation led to information relevant to those investigations, such as lists of malls and photography stores in Ontario and a search for the “best lawyer Montreal fraud credit card”.

His calendar entry for October 5, 2011, showed he was “doing Darky’s shit”.

A conversation between he and co‑accused Guo characterized the Winnipeg hit as part of a larger plan to invest for ATM fraud.” (Devine decision)

Again, the question begs — and I won’t pretend to know the answer — why Winnipeg?

Why not Toronto, Vancouver — or given how internet based the data-scamming scheme is — Jasper or Kelowna? It it our cheap long-distance rates?

Yes, the actual damage in this case was minimal, thanks to a sharp-eyed and suspicious Henry’s sales clerk who questioned why all of Harvey-Langton’s fake cards were being declined when he tried to buy a Canon D60 DSLR as part of the overall scheme to finance further fraud.

The plan was to counterfeit credit cards, buy high-end cameras and give them to a fourth individual named “Dope Carder” who would sell the cameras for $800 each. The offender’s take would be $300 on each camera. (Devine decision)

So what’s the big deal, you might wonder as well.

Amex thought it was a big deal. In a rare move, the Crown sought a victim impact statement from the credit-card company to tell the court about the effects credit-card scams have on Canadians.

One of the agreed documents was a Victim Impact Statement from the Amex Bank of Canada, completed by its Director of Security, Rick Neals. In the statement, Mr. Neals outlined the increasing seriousness of credit card fraud internationally and in Canada. There are 68.2 million credit cards in circulation across Canada. In 2011, the Canadian issuers of Visa, Mastercard and American Express reported losses of $436,588,757 due to credit card fraud, a form of “electronic bank robbery” according to Mr. Neal’s statement. Counterfeit activity is the largest type of credit card fraud in Canada. One of the methods is through computer hacking:

Data thieves hack into networks to steal account data or infect the network with malware which is capable of collecting account data as it is being processed by a merchant or processor. The compromised data is then sold by organized crime groups on the Internet “carder forums” and is later used to manufacture a counterfeit credit card. (at 4)

Credit card fraud is not typically committed by sole operators. Mr. Neal’s statement goes on to say,

Counterfeit credit card fraud is not usually perpetrated by one individual acting alone. It is generally committed by highly mobile, organized-crime gangs, who use the funds obtained to finance various other criminal activities, including drug trafficking, firearm purchases, etc. (at 5) (Devine decision)

Anyone with any answers to the question that started out this post, please chime in in the comments.

Harvey-Langton has six years now to reflect and ask himself the same question.

Minus earned remission and early parole eligibility, of course.