Originally Posted - July 24, 2006

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MANHATTAN---Lanare Elekede, aka "getting2k@yahoo.com," and "getting2k@hotmail", has pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court to his participation in a sophisticated scheme to steal the identities of hundreds of people, and then use those stolen identities to commit fraud.

Elekede is the lead defendant in the prosecution of a large identity theft ring which was engaged in, among other things, stealing individual victims' personal identity information, sharing that information over the Internet with other members of the identity ring, and using the information to commit various forms of fraud. By pleading guilty, Elekede avoided trial which had been scheduled to begin this month.

According to the complaint, the evidence against Elekede included a large number of e-mails between members of a sophisticated identity theft ring. Among other things, members of the ring exchanged numerous credit card numbers, expiration dates and three-digit codes, which they typically referred to as "ike" or "ikes." The e-mails also included the personal identity information of a large number of individual victims (which they typically referred to as "infos"), including victims' names, addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers (referred to as "sola sola"), and mother's maiden names ("mama name"). As detailed in the complaint, Elekede and his co-conspirators then used the stolen credit card numbers and identity information to commit various forms of fraud, including using the credit card numbers to make purchases over the Internet.

As disclosed in court during Elekede's guilty plea hearing, the investigation revealed that a common thread linking a number of the victims whose identities were compromised was that they had engaged in sports-related gambling over the names and credit card numbers.

Elekede, 32, is a native of Nigeria and, until his arrest, lived in Miami, Florida, and Chicago, Ill. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 18.

Elekede's co-defendant, Abiodun Wahab, previously pleaded guilty on May 19.    7-24-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette