Jocelyn Kirsch is set to plead guilty to identity theft but prosecutors say that this hasn’t stopped her from continuing to steal identities. The Seattle Times reports that she was recently accused of stealing an acquaintance’s credit card in California, where she has been living while awaiting her federal plea.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan this month called Kirsch and her Ivy League boyfriend, co-defendant Edward Anderton, the “poster children for identity theft.” The duo stole identities from friends and acquaintances to fund a year-long shopping spree, which included $120,000 in travel, goods and services.

Kirsch has not yet been charged in the California theft. But the incident could enhance the probable two- to five-year sentence she faces in the pending case, said prosecutors. She plans to plead guilty to the five-count information, which includes aggravated identity theft, money laundering and fraud charges.

Deputies say a county jail inmate ran an identity theft scam from his upstate New York cell.

Newsday reported that authorities are charging 24-year-old Eddie Camacho with conspiracy, criminal impersonation and unlawful possession of personal identification information. The defendant allegedly called people from the jail and impersonated members of the district attorney’s office to obtain personal information, including Social Security numbers. Deputies said he then used the information to obtain credit and services in the names of six victims.

Camacho, who is from New York City, was in jail on charges he took part in another identity scam.

Yahoo has filed suit against an unnamed group of phishers, alleging that they tricked thinking that they won a prize from Yahoo in an effort to steal their passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information.

According to the Associated Press, Yahoo filed the lawsuit on May 16 in U.S. District Court in New York City under federal trademark law, federal anti-spam law and other state laws. The company stated that the defendants pretended to be Yahoo representatives, sending out e-mails claiming recipients had won prizes ranging from a few thousand to a million dollars and instructing them to click on a link or forward personal information to a “Yahoo lottery coordinator” to get their prize.

Some recipients were instructed to contact another party to arrange for the prize payment, Yahoo said in the filing, and this other party would charge them “hundreds of dollars in various processing and mailing charges in order to complete the payment process.”
Such “phishing” scams are meant to trick consumers into sharing financial information.

While the defendants’ identities are unknown right now, Yahoo thinks that information acquired during a discovery period from third-party e-mail service companies will lead to their identification.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) warned investors about a new scam involving online job classifieds that scammers use to carry out identity theft and financial fraud.

Here’s how the scam works. Stock traders, posing as employees of a fake brokerage firm, stole personal information from individuals who thought they were applying for a job through Craigslist. Applicants were told that they needed to provide personal and financial information to conduct company “background checks” – because the firm would be entrusting them with the firm’s money. The traders appear to have communicated with applicants only by email or fax.

According to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), these scammers allegedly used the job applicants’ Social Security numbers, dates of birth and other information to open up online brokerage accounts.

After “hiring” several individuals, the firm allegedly sent funds to those individuals’ personal bank accounts using wire transfers from Russian bank accounts and a Western Union money order. The individuals were instructed to wire those funds from their bank accounts to specific account numbers – which corresponded to brokerage accounts opened with their personal information, without their knowledge.

U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan says he wants five-year terms for a young Center City couple who used the good names and credit of others to finance a yearlong, $119,000 spending spree.

The Inquirer reports that Meehan called Jocelyn S. Kirsch and Edward K. Anderton the “poster children for identity theft.” The couple targeted strangers, coworkers, neighbors and friends. Their victims included another couple from whom they stole information, first when they were guests and later when they robbed their hosts’ home.

The criminal complaint against the couple outlined their activities, which ranged from stealing purses at a Center City bar to establishing multiple accounts under different names and wearing disguises to withdraw money from some of those bank accounts. The couple would buy time to make illegal credit card purchases by calling the victims of purse-snatchings and telling them that the bag had been taken accidentally or had been found by police and would be returned.

Apparently, they went on a massive shopping spree with the stolen cash. Kirsch and Anderton allegedly used the money to fund trips to Paris, Hawaii, Florida, Montreal and the Caribbean between November 2006 and last December.

Both defendants live on the West Coast but are expected back in the coming weeks for an as-yet-unscheduled court appearance.