A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation recently busted an immigration and employment document-forging ring at several Houston-area flea markets.

According to ICE, "Operation Fake ID focused its investigative efforts on individuals allegedly involved in trafficking counterfeit government identity documents, including U.S. permanent resident cards, at the Sunny, La Tia Pancha and Cintas flea markets in north Houston."

The Houston Chronicle reports (link below) that the ICE-led effort has netted 19 suspects.

Florida's Alachua County Sheriff's Office and local law enforcement agencies are investigating a card-skimming operation that is seemingly targeting gas station pumps near I-75.

And Florida isn't the only state under attack. Lt. Steve Maynard, spokesman for the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, tells Network World that the Secret Service has indicated to him there is a "crime wave throughout the Southeast" involving the gas pump skimmers.

We had this post last week about police discovering that criminals had installed credit/debit card skimming devices at 180 Utah gas stations. Now two men have been arrested and charged in California for installing a skimming device on a gas pump at the 7-Eleven in Martinez. They may also be responsible for 11 other gas pump skimmers police have uncovered in Northern California.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting and lengthy article about Shamsha Laiwalla, a woman who owned a California vehicle registration company and who is charged with a long list of state and federal crimes as a result of the illegal services she allegedly offered to people looking for fraudulent documents like drivers' licenses, birth certificates, vehicle registrations and social security cards.

Four people in southern Florida were arrested and charged on Friday (5/1) for their involvement in an extensive debit card fraud and identity theft ring.

From the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Press Release: According to the Indictment, the defendants and their co-conspirators made devices, known as "skimming devices," that captured the information stored on the magnetic stripe of bank debit cards when the debit cards were placed into Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) throughout Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties. The skimming devices, and hidden micro-video cameras, were placed on the ATMs to record customers' Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) as they conducted their transactions.

The FBI is warning Americans that during these economically trying times they should be on the alert for various work-at-home scams that aim to scheme them out of what money they have, as well as hijack their identity.

In particular the FBI wants Americans to be aware of these common scams: advance-fee, counterfeit check-facilitated "mystery shopper", pyramid schemes, and unknowing involvement in criminal activity.

On February 27, a New York City Police Pension Fund (PPF) civilian employee was arrested for allegedly stealing storage media containing the personal information of about 80,000 current and former NYPD officers. The theft took place at a Port Authority-owned backup facility on Staten Island.

While the PPF, "does not believe that member information has been compromised" it is notifying all those potentially affected as required by law. Here is a sample of the notification letter (PDF). The data included social security numbers, names, addresses and bank account data.

Here is a case that demonstrates the international nature of identity and bank card theft rings. A San Diego man who pleaded guilty this week to debit card fraud and conspiracy to launder money was part of an operation in which he received the stolen bank information from someone in Russia. He then distributed the data to accomplices in the Dominican Republic where counterfeit cards were encoded. Then the cards were used to withdraw money at ATMs in New York City. This money was sent to Russia and finally, the man in San Diego received his commission.