Cybercrooks lure citizens into international crime

The USA Today story is chilling. Lured by "make money in your spare time at home" ads at places like Monster.com and in local newspapers, US citizens are being lured into the web of foreign -- think Nigeria, Eastern Europe and Russia -- Internet criminals who trans-ship expensive goods and cash out of the country. All with stolen identities and credit. Everything, starting with the dummy web site URL, is paid for with stolen credit. Untraceable.

One of the big tricks is to go online with stolen ID and change the notification address, then ask for a higher credit limit. You can imagine what happens next. How large banks miss an obvious check is beyond me. Bank stockholders, who are paying billions in fraudulent charge reimbursements, ought to be asking why banks do not send an address change notification to the old address. That way the people whose ID is stolen have a clue when their bank statement is changed to Pocohontas, Iowa. The banks are acting like fools or knaves.