Identity thief Dmitry Naskovits reveals how he used to empty bank accounts

OPERATING in a cyber crime racket, this man stole thousands of dollars from unsuspecting victims. Now, he is exposing the secrets of identity theft.

DMITRY Naskovets had just finished studying finance at college and was working for a car dealership in the Republic of Belarus.

The year was 2006 and after a chance encounter on the subway with a former classmate named Sergey Sematic, Naskovets’ life changed forever.

As the eastern European was fluent in English — the result of six lessons a week for nine years — Sematic approached him with a job offer.

Days later, Naskovets found himself walking away from a high-end apartment, $500 the richer, for doing nothing more than attending a vague meeting.

Despite the dubious nature of the details discussed, Dmitry had just earned more in a few short hours than he would earn in one month at the car dealership.

This was enough to entice the 22-year-old into the world of identity theft.

He was educated enough to know what he was doing was wrong, but he young, stupid and money hungry enough to justify his actions.

“You don’t see blood, you don’t see crying people in front of you,” he told Bloomberg.

“You’re just pushing the button.”

The con was simple. Clients would send through requests to Sematic, who would then pass them onto Naskovets to action.

Early jobs were simple tasks such as checking a credit card balance or changing the billing address on an account.

When trust was proved, Naskovets was welcomed deeper into the criminal network and he soon found himself impersonating bank customers to get fraudulent wire transfers approved.

Not long after, he was running his own business being approached outright by hackers for his services.

Naskovets was performing the fraud from Minsk, the capital of Belaus.

By this point in time he had developed a reputation for using his English skills to pretend to be customers so that dubious transactions from stolen credit card details could be approved.

“It’s crazy and every day something new,” he said.

“You can do it from your kitchen in your underwear with a beer.”

It was a simple, yet effective method and on one instance, Naskovets was been considered more authentic than the actual card owner.

One of his clients had purchased a MacBook Pro online, but American Express blocked the stolen credit card.

Using manipulation software to give the impression he was calling from the US, Naskovets called Amex pretended to be the customer so the transaction could be complete.

After realising a discrepancy with the phone number listed on the account, the girl fielding the call grew suspicious and decided to place Naskovets on hold and ring the number.

The legitimate cardholder answered the phone and the employee now had the difficult task of deciphering which party was authentic.

Her method to determine was to ask one an identity question, wait for his response and then do the same with the other man.

As Naskovets was fed the answers in real-time on a screen, his answers were more succinct than the real card owner who was relying on memory,

In the end the woman apologised to Naskovets for the inconvenience and approved the transaction.

“This guy has his credit stolen from him in front of his eyes,” he said

The nature of his work meant he could set up shop anywhere that had computer access and a phone line.

For his services, Naskovets would charge $20 a phone call or request a percentage of the transaction.

This worked out to be profitable for the con man, as he was earning up to $1000 a day.

Having money for this first time in his life meant he was able to travel, attend nightclubs and fancy restaurants — all activities he could never afford while working at the dealership.

“It was a good life,” he said.

“The most important thing was a kind of freedom from anything.”

In 2009, he was married and was planning on using his earnings to become legit.

“I already understood I cannot do this business all my life,” he said.

However, the allure of the easy money continued to tempt Naskovets.

Despite remaining in the business, he was cautious to not get involved with transactions involving millions of dollars.

“The bigger the money, the bigger the mental tension,” he said.

Despite his cautious approach, Naskovets’ life as a free man came to an end on April 15, 2010.

He had been sitting in his apartment in a six-storey building in Prague when the power was cut.

Shortly after being plunged into darkness, there was a knock on the door and Naskovets answered to see a man wearing a bright orange jacket.

At first he thought it was electrician, but he realised this wasn’t the case when he was forced to the ground, handcuffed and shown a document saying he was facing up to 39½ years prison in the U.S. for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

He was taken to Prague’s Pankrác prison before being extradited to the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan.

In March 2012, he was sentenced to just 33 months imprisonment including time served and was ordered to pay a $200 fine.

Due to his good behaviour and time already served, Naskovets was released from prison in September 2012.

He now lives a reformed life in Queens running his own security consultancy firm called CycberSec.