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Identity Theft Ring's Number Was Up

It's Law & Order: Concerned-Child- Who-is-a- Police-Officer Squad! An identity theft ring that targeted the elderly or people with "foreign-sounding" names was busted when a scammer called an old man, only to speak to an NYPD deputy chief - the man's daughter. Eleven people were indicted in Queens for duping people into giving up their credit card number, Social Security number, and other personal details. They would randomly call people, and one of the people they called was Deputy Chief Joellen Kunkel's father. According to the Sun, they called twice, leaving messages, "before Chief Kunkel finally called a phone number left by one of the supposed federal agents to demand that he identify himself." And the Daily News had their exchange:

"He kept saying, 'I'm a fed. I'm Homeland Security. I'm a fed,'" Deputy NYPD Chief Joellen (Cookie) Kunkel said yesterday of the phone call she received from the scammers last May. "And I said, 'I happen to be a chief in the New York City Police Department and I don't know who you are.'

"And he basically hollered out to someone, 'Jerry, we got the wrong people.'"

Ha! Apparently "Kunkel" sounded South Asian. Even though the guy hung up, Kunkel had this phone number and so began "Operation Cookie Cutter." The ring, which included participants in Queens and Boston, had racked up $1 million after stealing hundreds of identities.

Here's information about fighting identity theft from the Federal Trade Commission.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • christopher geoghan



  • Olga

    I had a friend pull my credit report and she came back and told me that someone wasn using my social sucurity and my date of birth. My question to you is can that cause me problems later in life? If so is there anything that I can do? PLEASE HELP!

  • Yvo

    Hmm, Jen, just out of curiosity.... couldn't the chief still be South Asian? o_O .... stupid thieves but ironic comment by you....

  • leave a mess

    Sorry, read that these guys leave a message.

    That's why I don't have an answering machine, caller ID is enough to know who's calling.

  • Al

    2 Chuck Schumer's staffers were convicted of identity theft (of black republican candidate). Had Chuck been a republican, this would have been front page news on New York Times-Jazeera for months.

  • #3... good "call"! who the heck just picks up a phone? :)

  • kaller eye dee

    Who just answers the phone anymore? that's what caller ID is for. If it's that important, they'll send a certified letter, Yes, that's what I consider important.

    all that other stuff is small potatoes.

  • blah

    did somebody say "promotion"?

  • how about "Operation Hang them in City Hall"

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