In June 2007, Belarussian nationals Dmitry M. Naskovets and Sergey Semashko (also referred to as “Semasko” in some Department of Justice reports) created CallService.biz (“CallService”), a Russian language online business hosted in Lithuania. Unfortunately, that mundane start to this story doesn’t continue along such an innocuous path. To the contrary, this online business venture takes us over to the dark side.
Naskovets and Semashko created CallService with the intention of assisting identity thieves to exploit stolen financial information, such as credit card and debit card numbers. CallService was designed to thwart the security measures put in place by financial institutions.
Yes, I speak the Englishes wellfully
In exchange for a fee, Naskovets and Semashko provided through CallService the services of English- and German-speaking individuals to persons who had stolen account and biographical information. On the front-end of this transaction, the identity thief provided:
– the name of the bank to be contacted;
– the stolen account information;
– the stolen biographical information;
– instructions as to what to say or how the fraudulent transaction was to be conducted.
Thereafter, Naskovets and his co-conspirators would assign someone of the same gender and who spoke the same language as the authorized account holder. CallService’s foreign language speakers would pose as the authorized account holders and telephone financial institutions and other businesses in order to conduct or confirm fraudulent account activity on behalf of the identity thieves. If successful, the CallService employees would, among other criminal acts:
– confirm unauthorized withdrawals or transfers from bank accounts,
– unblock accounts,
– change the address or phone number associated with an account.
After the requested call was made, Naskovets and his co-conspirators reported back to the identity thief and awaited further instructions.
Our Toll Free Number Is
CallService posted advertisements for its services on other websites used by identity thieves, including CardingWorld.cc, which was operated by Semashko. One such advertisement noted “a special offer of an unlimited number of confirmation calls” to interested individuals, among which were listed “successful Carders (drop handlers . . . PIN cashers, etc.). . .” Other advertisements boasted that CallService had “over 2090 people working with” it and had “done over 5400 confirmation calls” to banks, referencing calls to defeat security screening procedures and confirm or conduct fraudulent transactions.
Offline
At the request of the United States, Naskovets was arrested by Czech authorities on April 15, 2010. Also on that day, in a joint operation, Belarusian law enforcement authorities arrested Semashko in Belarus; and Lithuanian law enforcement authorities seized the computers on which CallService was hosted. Belarusian authorities also arrested additional co-conspirators for related criminal conduct. In addition, the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation simultaneously seized the Website domain name pursuant to a seizure warrant.
On September 20, 2010, Naskovets was extradited from the Czech Republic. A U.S. Indictment charged Naskovets with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
On February 23, 2011, Naskovets, 26, pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and credit card fraud. He faces a maximum sentence of 37 and one-half years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26, 2011.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2011/02/25/naskovets-callservice/