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Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein

The New York State Assembly passed the Consumer Credit Fairness Act, a bill designed to protect low-income and elderly New Yorkers from aggressive debt collection practitioners.

According to a report by the Post Star News, the primary purpose of the Consumer Credit Fairness Act, introduced by Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein, is to curb abusive debt collection lawsuits by the following means:

• Requiring notice of a pending consumer credit action to be mailed to the defendants by the clerk of the court;
• Requiring court filings to include more information about the debt targeted in a lawsuit, such as identifying the debt or account and providing proof that the debt is owed to the plaintiff;
• Lowering the statute of limitations for consumer credit transactions from six years to three years, and eliminating the right to collect the debt once the statute of limitations is expired; and
• Terminating the ability of debt buyers to sue on expired debt.

Weinstein explained the importance of the legislation as well as its impact on domestic violence victims.

“Abusive debt collection lawsuits exploit gaps in our state’s laws. This bill takes important steps to close these loopholes to protect consumers and helps to address the long-term impact of economic abuse, including identity theft, which is often suffered by domestic violence victims at the hands of their abusers.”

Weinstein’s work on the bill received high praise from Claudia Wilner, an attorney at NEDAP (Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project) who expressed hopes that it will be passed in the New York State Senate.

“We now call upon the Senate to pass the CCFA this legislative session to put an end to abusive debt collection practices. New Yorkers, particularly those who are low-income, elderly, disabled or domestic violence survivors, have been harassed by these unscrupulous debt collectors for far too long.”

Source: wmfawmfa/Flickr

The alleged leader of a tax fraud ring employing Kazakh student visa-holders and a phony job placement website pleaded guilty on Tax Day yesterday, the Manhattan District Attorney announced.

We first wrote about Petr Murmylyuk last year, when he was charged in Newark as the alleged leader of a $1 million securities fraud scheme that involved hacking into the online trading accounts of unsuspecting individuals, and forcing them to engage in losing trades that benefited a network of phony accounts he and his cohorts set up. Later that day, Manhattan prosecutors expanded an earlier indictment of Murmylyuk, 31, charging him with stealing the identities of more than 300 unemployed people and collecting phony tax returns in their names.

According to the DA’s press release:

 He recruited a network of eleven Kazakh student visa-holders, typically holders of J-1 Visas, to open bank accounts to receive the unauthorized refunds. MURMYLYUK pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Money Laundering in the Second Degree, and is expected to be sentenced on May 6, 2013.

…  According to his guilty plea, MURMYLYUK created a fake employment-related website with the address www.jobcentral2.net. The site offered fictitious job placement services through a program it claimed was “sponsored by the government and intended for people with low income.” MURMYLYUK sent e-mails with a link to his fake website through legitimate job search forums and college listservs and, in the weeks that followed, hundreds of people visited his site and submitted personal identifying information.

MURMYLYUK collected the information submitted to his website, and used it to forge tax returns in victims’ names. Using an e-filing vendor, the defendant claimed fraudulent refunds ranging from approximately $3,500 to $6,500 each. MURMYLYUK successfully obtained refunds in the names of 108 of the approximately 300 different victims who had visited www.jobcentral2.net, yielding more than $450,000 in stolen taxpayer funds.

MURMYLYUK recruited a group of students from Kazakhstan, many located on Russian-language social networking sites, to open accounts at banks across the country and provide their account numbers, online passwords, and other data to MURMYLYUK for use in the scheme. Many of the students returned to Kazakhstan shortly after opening the accounts for MURMYLYUK, were charged in the indictment in absentia.

We received the following press release from the Flatbush Shomrim:

In response to recent reports from local and federal law enforcement agencies that Identity Theft is at all time high in our community, Flatbush Shomrim has arranged a FREE on-site shredding event before Pesach.

The FREE shredding event is scheduled for this Sunday, March 17th from noon to 4pm, rain or shine. A LionCage Shredding truck will be parked across from HASC – 1221 East 14th Street between Ave. L and Locust Ave.

Organizers have advised that this free service is available for residence only and not for businesses. Limit 1-2 boxes/bags per family. Items to bring include old tax returns, expired IDs, credit cards, sensitive documents etc. Paper only. No metal, plastic or general trash. No need to remove paper clips or staples.

Many of you will have documents that you no longer need. That doesn’t mean you should throw them out in the regular trash. “Identity theft is real” explains Mark from LionCage Shredding. “Especially in this economy, a trash can is a gold mine for ID thieves.”

This event is endorsed by Flatbush Shomrim. “With identity thefts at an all time high, you cannot afford to miss this event” explains Chaim Deutsch. “Taking advantage of this free on-site shredding event is one more easy step to prevent yourself from becoming the next victim,” he warned.

A special thanks to Chaim Deutsch for arranging this free event.

For more information about LionCage Shredding for your business, please call 718.575.LION (5466) or visit them online at: www.LionCage.com

This event is not paid with taxpayer funds.

Joe Reisman, real life superhero.

Local Sanitation workers, the head of Community Board 15 and Sheepshead Bites’ own tax columnist, Joseph Reisman, all went above and beyond the call of duty on Friday, mobilizing to secure hundreds of documents containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers, bank account information and other information coveted by identity thieves that were accidentally strewn across a busy Sheepshead Bay intersection.

The incident was sparked by a tip sent to us by Sheepshead Bites reader Penny, who informed us at approximatly 6:00 p.m. on Friday that hundreds of papers were blowing in the wind on Avenue Z, between East 16th Street and East 17th Street. Upon closer inspection, Penny wrote, the papers were tax records from a local accountant, and contained some of the most sensitive private information about clients – the kind of info that makes ID thieves drool.

We checked it out, and, indeed, it appeared hundreds, if not thousands, of individual’s identities were at risk.

First, we called the accountant listed on the papers, and even knocked on his office door. But no one was in.

Then we called our own tax guru, Reisman, to see if there was a city or state agency able to respond and quickly clean up the mess and possibly notify the accountant and his clients. Reisman wasn’t aware of any, and advised us to call the city.

We then called 311, but the uniqueness of the complaint baffled operators. After being transferred around a couple of times, an operator said all they could do was file a complaint, and, in time, the Sanitation Department would dispatch someone to check out the location and issue the accountant a fine for littering. However, it wasn’t clear if they could get someone to the location within 24 hours.

That wasn’t good enough. With so much personal information so easily accessible to passers-by, we knew every second it remained on the street, people’s credit and identities remained at risk.

Keep reading to find out what happened next.

Petr Murmylyuk, a.k.a. Dmitry Tokar, is having a bad day. Murmylyuk has been slapped with a slew of federal charges in two different states.

First came a federal indictment in Newark, New Jersey, in which the 31-year-old is identified as the alleged leader of a $1 million securities fraud scheme that involved hacking into the online trading account of unsuspecting individuals, and forcing them to engage in losing trades that benefited a network of phony accounts he and his cohorts set up.

Then, in Manhattan, the expansion of an earlier federal indictment in which Murmylyuk is charged with stealing the identities of more than 300 unemployed people, then collecting phony tax returns in their names.

Both cases involve preying on internet users and employing a network of Eastern European student visa-holders he helped recruit.

Read details about the schemes, and the charges Petr Murmylyuk, a.k.a. Dmitry Tokar faces.

Source: Flickr / Don Hankins

BETWEEN THE LINES: With technology continuing to progress at a steady clip, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies regularly alert the public about a parallel surge of electronic crimes related to computers, handheld gadgets and the internet, such as identity theft and phishing (fishing for personal information via suspicious emails).

In recent years, the number of identity theft incidents, due to the annual increase in E-filing of tax returns, has jumped during tax season and has reached new levels in 2012. Last year, the IRS reported more than 260,000 suspicious returns totaling more than $1.4 billion, which was discovered before it reached the wrong taxpayers. This year, so far, two million returns have been flagged for investigation.

In a nationwide crackdown, the IRS stepped up suspected identity thefts as the tax season began in January and said it investigated more than 100 people in 23 states.

Even so, the crime persists. Regrettably, I found out first-hand.

Continue Reading »

Photo by tamakisono via Flickr

Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz is inviting residents down for four hours of free document shredding on Thursday, October 28.

The initiative is part of an effort to raise awareness about identity theft, and will help safely destroy unwanted records and documents. The event is co-sponsored by the New York Consumer Protection Board.

Here are the event details:

Thursday, October 28
Bay Academy School Yard
1401 Emmons Avenue
(located directly behind school – enter from East 15th Street)
3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Can’t make it to the event? Here are some tips from the Consumer Protection Board to avoid credit card and identity theft: