The Times has an intriguing story on Shiva Brent Sharma, an Indo-Trinidadian from Richmond Hill, Queens. At the age of 20, he was convicted three times for identity theft, and he was the first person to be indicted under New York state’s special identity theft law.

Sharma was studying at Brooklyn Tech when he started to get interested in making money through identity theft. He learned the ropes of it through hacker sites, and started sending out “phishing” emails to thousands of AOL users to secure banking and credit card information via spoof websites. He used the money to buy cars and car parts, and stayed at upscale hotels in New York before he got caught. No one knows for sure how much he stole, but it’s in the range of $150,000.

Sharma made quite a number of illegal purchases almost immediately after being released on bail for an earlier infringement. Sharma is also married to a woman he met in high school, and has a kid; he only graduated high school in Rikers Island prison.

From the Times article, it’s hard to figure Sharma out. What made him do it? Drugs, gambling, a need to impress? Not necessarily any of the above: Continue reading →

Move over Louis, there is a Fat White Lady working your corner on the streets of New Delhi.

The AP reports that “Cocaine May Be the New Status Symbol in India“.

Says Kiran Bedi, good cop extraordinaire:

“Cocaine is expensive. You’ve got to have money for it, and now more people have money. It becomes a matter of keeping up with the Joneses.”

Among all the things that it is, it is another great example to add to the Class Matters series The New York Times did last year of how the material ways once used to define class have both changed and stayed the same.

And though I would argue that the social ripple effects of designer handbags and addictive stimulants are decidedly different, I suppose there is some parallel between Louis Vuitton and Lady Caine. Continue reading →

Last week several newspapers revealed the fact that the U.S. has been monitoring worldwide money transfers as part of its anti-terror measures:

Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials…

The program is limited, government officials say, to tracing transactions of people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda by reviewing records from the nerve center of the global banking industry, a Belgian cooperative that routes about $6 trillion daily between banks, brokerages, stock exchanges and other institutions. The records mostly involve wire transfers and other methods of moving money overseas and into and out of the United States. Most routine financial transactions confined to this country are not in the database. [Link]

Well okay. I guess looking at how money gets transferred isn’t as bad as listening to our conversations on the telephone. This seems like a pretty good idea. What could go wrong?

Money transfer agencies like Western Union have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, company officials said.

In one example, an Indian driver here [in Dubai] said Western Union prevented him from sending US$120 to a friend at home this month because the recipient’s name was Mohammed.

“Western Union told me that if I send money to Sahir Mohammed, the money will be blocked because of his name,” said 36-year-old Abdul Rahman Maruthayil, who later sent the money through UAE Exchange, a Dubai-based money transfer service.

In a similar case, Pakistani Qadir Khan said Western Union blocked his attempt this month to wire money to his brother, Mohammed, for a cataract operation.

“Every Mohammed is a terrorist now?” Khan asked.

Western Union Financial Services, Inc., an American company based in Colorado, said its clerks simply are following US Treasury Department guidelines that aim to scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. Most of the flagged transactions are delayed a few hours. Some are blocked entirely. [Link]