3 Las Vegans arrested in international cybercrime case

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 | 1:18 p.m.

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Three Las Vegas residents were among 100 people indicted in what the FBI is calling the largest group ever arrested in a cybercrime case.

In the multinational investigation in the United States and Egypt, authorities uncovered a sophisticated "phishing" operation that collected personal information that was used to defraud American banks.

Authorities, including Metro Police and the FBI in Las Vegas, were arresting 53 people named in the 51-count indictment returned last week by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, the FBI said. Arrests today occurred in Nevada, Southern California and North Carolina.

The three Las Vegas residents arrested were identified as 21-year-old Shontovia Debose, 20-year-old Tramond Davis and 21-year-old Raymond Valentino Mancillas III.

The three were arrested without incident, said Joseph Dickey, a spokesman for the Las Vegas office of the FBI. Davis and Mancillas were arrested at their homes and Debose was taken into custody at the parole and probation office west of downtown Las Vegas, he said.

In addition, authorities in Egypt have charged 47 people linked to the phishing scheme.

Operation "Phish Phry" marks the first joint cyber investigation between Egyptian law enforcement and United States officials, the FBI said.

Phish Phry also marks the largest cybercrime investigation in the United States, with 53 people charged here, the FBI said.

Operation Phish Phry began in 2007 when FBI agents, working with United States financial institutions, took steps to identify and disrupt sophisticated criminal enterprises that targeted financial businesses in the United States. Investigations here and in Egypt led authorities to cooperate in the investigations.

Phishing involves a technique that sends e-mail messages that appear to be official correspondence from banks or credit card vendors. In illegal phishing schemes, bank customers are directed to fake Web sites appearing to be linked to financial institutions. There, customers are directed to enter their account numbers, passwords and other personal identification information. The customers do not realize that the sites are not those of legitimate financial institutions, the FBI said.

Those involved in the scheme based in Egypt collected bank account information, then members of the conspiracy hacked into accounts at Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

The United States ring was allegedly operated by Kenneth Joseph Lucas, Nichole Michelle Merzi and Jonathan Preston Clark, all of California, the FBI said.

The Las Vegas members of the ring set up bank accounts where the funds stolen from compromised accounts could be deposited.

Those arrested in Las Vegas will have their initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.

People who get e-mail that looks like it is from a bank or other financial institution but turns out to be fake can file a complaint online, the FBI said. The Internet Crime Complaint Center is at www.ic3.gov.

Discussion: 4 comments so far…

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By Planetearthcalling

Oct. 7, 2009

1:41 p.m.

Suggest removal

Remember those kids arrested a while back in Henderson. A very rich brother & sister combo that was responsible for sending a butt load of the spam we were getting whether we liked it or not..

I wonder why they always pick Vegas for their home base
By kmd101

Oct. 7, 2009

2:48 p.m.

Suggest removal

Seriously, could you have come up with any other adjective other than "butt load"?
By afveteran

Oct. 7, 2009

3:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

Crooks like these deserve maximum jail time.
By Planetearthcalling

Oct. 7, 2009

3:57 p.m.

Suggest removal

As you'll recall mr. kmd101, a good bit of that spam arrived in our email accounts uninvited and filled with viruses, phishing scams and all other sorts of bad things.
All those bad things cost me a lot of money when two of my very expensive computers running the latest & greatest anti virus software were damaged beyond repair, even though we never opened any emails nor clicked on any links contained in the uninvited emails.

There were so many viruses running through internet servers it was impossible not to get hurt by them at the time.

That would explain my description of butt load.