Secret Service Disrupts Identity Theft Ring

Pittsburgh, PA A high-tech undercover investigation led by the U.S. Secret Service has led to the indictment of a California man on wire fraud and identity theft charges. Max Ray Butler, 35, of San Francisco, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania following his arrest on September 5, 2007. The arrest and indictment are the result of an ongoing Internet-based investigation targeting individuals involved in numerous illegal activities to include the purchase, sale and exploitation of various financial instruments and personnel identification information and documents. The indictment alleges that Butler, using the online alias "Iceman," was associated with Internet sites known for illegal carding activity. Specifically, the indictment alleges Butler to be the co-founder and administrator of "CardersMarket," a notorious carding website. According to the indictment, Butler sold tens of thousands of credit card numbers belonging to others through websites such as CardersMarket, a virtual "safe haven" for those involved in the theft, use and sale of credits cards and other personal information. "Cyber crime has evolved significantly over the last several years with criminals regularly targeting the personal and financial information of ordinary citizens, as well as the confidential and proprietary information of companies engaged in e-commerce," said U.S. Secret Service Deputy Assistant Director Michael Merritt. "The Secret Service actively continues to adapt our investigative techniques to progressively combat these emerging threats to our nation's financial infrastructure." As detailed in the indictment, Butler engaged in a scheme in which he hacked into secure computer systems that connect to the Internet, including computers at financial institutions and credit card processing centers, in order to acquire credit card account information and other personal identification information that he could sell to others. The buyers would use the information either to make fraudulent purchases or to re-sell to others to use, causing losses to credit card issuers.