Information for Victims in Large Cases

Infraud Organization was created in October 2010 to promote and grow interest as the premier destination for purchasing retail items with counterfeit or stolen credit card information. Under the slogan, “In Fraud We Trust,” the organization directed traffic and potential purchasers to the automated vending sites of its members, which served as online conduits to traffic in stolen means of identification, stolen financial and banking information, malware, and other illicit goods. It also provided an escrow service to facilitate illicit digital currency transactions among its members and employed screening protocols that purported to ensure only high quality vendors of stolen cards, personally identifiable information, and other contraband were permitted to advertise to members.

On May 11, 2017, Arias-Perez was charged in the Western District of Wisconsin with installing credit card skimmers at two gas stations in Madison on August 12, 2016. On April 27, 2017. a search warrant was executed at Arias-Perez’s residence in Miami, Florida. During the search, agents located various electronic devices and equipment used for stealing credit card information. Based on a forensic analysis of the electronic equipment recovered from Arias-Perez’s residence and the recovered skimmers in the case, investigators have determined that Arias-Perez is responsible for the theft of approximately 57,000 credit card numbers.

Intercept Corporation, d/b/a “InterceptEFT” (“Intercept”), a privately held corporation headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, operating an illegal money transmittal business. Intercept was a “third party payment processor” which processed electronic funds transfers for its clients through the Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) system, an electronic payments network that processed financial transactions without using paper checks. Among Intercept’s clients were numerous business entities that issued, serviced, funded, and collected debt from short-term, high-interest loans, commonly referred to as “payday loans,” because such loans are supposed to be repaid when the borrower received his or her next paycheck or regular income payment. Payday loans are effectively illegal in more than a dozen states, including Pennsylvania, and are highly regulated in many other states.

Christopher Angeles was charged with engaging in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing and maintaining prices of customized promotional products, including wristbands, sold in the United States and elsewhere from at least as early as June 2014 and continuing until at least June 2016.