In the Company of Thieves

Meet “Ray” – The Rainy Day Thief

 

Ray was the first identity thief interviewed by Neal O’Farrell for his documentary In The Company of Thieves. Ray had been described by law enforcement as one of the most dangerous identity thieves in America. He’s had plenty of time to hone his craft and earn his reputation. He’s been involved in identity theft and fraud for more than twenty years and law enforcement estimates that during that time he stole millions.

We met Ray while he was serving out the remainder of his sentence at a low security jail in Northern California. He had been transferred there after spending years in the much tougher San Quentin prison, but had to be moved for his own safety.

In spite of some audacious scams, Ray had never been arrested once in his twenty-year career. Until one unlucky day when a curious wine cop in Sonoma County stumbled across Ray printing checks from the back of his car parked outside a casino.

That encounter resulted in nearly 80 felony charges and seven years in prison.

Like many of the world’s best thieves, Ray is an expert in social engineering and able to use his charm and charisma to spot and exploit vulnerable people, as well as find insiders willing to help him in his crimes. And because he makes sure that all his accomplices are always well rewarded for their role, he’s never been turned in to law enforcement.

What made Ray even more dangerous is that he was also an expert hacker and forger, working for years with high tech giants like AT&T and Cisco while at the same time living his double life as a thief. As a master forger, Ray spent years studying everything from the technologies to verify the authenticity of checks, to the magnetic ink used to print checks, to how to print holograms on driver’s licenses.

He was so meticulous in his planning, Ray would often set up a company and pose as a customer so he could engage the technical and sales staff of banking security firms in in-depth conversations about how their technologies did and didn’t work. Using a network of expensive hotels and stolen rental cars, Ray was able to keep on the move and operate sophisticated identity theft factories from the back seat of his car.

He also spent years studying the financial system, including how the banks and credit card companies verify identities, spot fraud, and grant new credit. He learned how the Social Security Administration works, how Social Security Numbers are created, and how to create new identities from invented Social Security numbers.

And prison didn’t stop Ray. While serving time on fraud charges in the notorious San Quentin prison in California, Ray used the Social Security numbers of other inmates to file fraudulent tax returns with the IRS, earning tens of thousands of dollars while still behind bars.

Unlike most identity thieves, Ray is patient and meticulous. He keeps a revolving collection of victim files, all under various stages of development. He’s constantly improving and adding to each file, filling in critical and sometimes even trivial pieces of information. Whenever he feels a file is complete and ready, he sets to work on that identity.

And once he has even the most basic of success, like getting a new credit card using a stolen identity, Ray assumes that identity. He’s so careful and patient, he will often pay off dozens of fraudulent credit cards each month so that his new identity builds up a growing limit with each card.  As soon as he feels he has reached the highest credit limit on a credit card – usually in the tens of thousands of dollars, he maxes out the card, closes it down, and moves on.

To Ray, identity theft is not just a job and profession, it’s a passion. He thrives on the risk and danger, but more than that, he loves learning about the latest security system or technology so that he can find weaknesses that he can exploit.

What did he do with all the money? He lived the high life, as well as taking care of family and friends. He stayed at the best hotels and most expensive suites, but always rented apartment or two to fall back on. He only drove rented cars, and often had five or six vehicles rented with stolen identities and hidden away because he simply never returned them. He would often give a rented car away in return for a favor from another thief like in insider.

He travelled first class and loved to gamble – he said it’s his greatest weakness and is the only thing that has ever led to his arrest. He had often flown his family from Philadelphia to California for long vacations, putting them up in a seaside mansion rented on the Sonoma coast.

Ray narrowly avoided capture a number of times. Most recently, he stole nearly $200,000 from a union leader and his wife, who then hired a team of private detectives who tracked Ray to the hotel he was staying at by tracking the stolen credit cards he was using. He actually spoke to two of the detectives by posing as hotel security and offering to help.

To avoid capture, and reduce suspicion, Ray used to carry  a Cisco employee ID badge, as well as Cisco business cards (he used to be an employee of Cisco). In his trunk he usually has half a dozen Cisco video conferencing systems, each worth around $5,000, and always claims to be on the way to install them at a hotel or business. When he needs quick cash, he’ll sell the systems to a local fence, then order more through Cisco.

So where did he get the name The Rainy Day Thief? Ray had assembled a collection of what he called his Rainy Day files – detailed dossiers on victims that  he had already breached and could turn into instant wealth whenever he needs the money to escape.

SO HOW DID RAY FIND HIS IDENTITIES?

Thanks to a network he has developed and paid over many years, Ray has constant access to an endless supply of personal information:

• Web sites, from public searches to Ancestry.com
• Internet databases and brokers.
• Stealing mail.
• Paying others to steal mail.
• Flipping insiders.
• Buying used laptops on Craigslist.
• Paying hotel employees to steal guest information.
• Eavesdropping on Wi-Fi networks.
• Stealing information from businesses.
• Buying information from hackers and hacking websites.