This is any credit (or debit) card user's worst nightmare: Dan Kaufman, who manages Blue Pig ice cream, Oven pizza, Busy Chef and Wine Bar in Brooklyn Heights, was arrested for taking $25,000 from customers' credit cards. According to the Post, Kaufman would take "credit card slips from Wine Bar and Oven, and then ran them through again at his Busy Chef stores and an outlet on Court Street, pocketing the dough." Kaufman surrendered yesterday......

Police have rounded up 38 people accused of running a credit card fraud ring out of Queens for almost a decade. Officials say hackers in China and Ukraine have been breaking into the databases of major U.S. department stores, and then sending the credit card information of thousands of shoppers to the ringleader, Kwok Chow, 36, a Flushing resident known as “Tony.” The scam hit approximately 3,000 consumers and may have cost as much as......

Last year, the federal authorities had been looking for Esther Elizabeth Reed, a woman who faked her way into attending Harvard, Cal State and most recently Columbia University, by using a dead woman's identity. Reed was on the lam, but this past weekend's murders at a mall outside Chicago led the police to Reed, who had been living in the very same town the killings occurred. In 2006, while in NYC, Reed had applied for......

Last November, Natavia Lowery's friends and family were screaming her innocence, but recently some pretty damning evidence came out about her relationship with Linda Stein, the woman she is accused of (and confessed to) murdering. Not surprisingly, the ex-Ramones manager and "realtor to the stars" had plenty of cash, but she would have had more if her trusty assistant Ms. Lowery wasn't siphoning funds. The NY Post reports that Lowery was systematically taking money from......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx, a stabbing at Ft. Hamilton H.S. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim on 88th St. in Queens. Hillary and Rudy initially attempted to settle things by seeing who would yell "uncle" first as they tried to crush each other's hand. A 31-year-old NJ man says that he throttled his mother with his bare hands after she criticized him for his messy......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a foot pursuit on West 50th St. and Broadway in Manhattan, a missing person on West 110th St. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Grove St. and Seneca Ave. in Queens. The 57-year-old man shot to death by a federal agent during a grenade sting this week was a career criminal. Authorities believe the proposed sale of what turned out to be an inert grenade was probably just an......

Linda Stein's daughter says that her mother had been recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and was, according to the Daily News, "taking medication that caused severe mood swings." Stein was found bludgeoned to death on October 30, and her personal assistant Natavia Lowery was arrested for her murder on Friday. Samantha Stein-Wells said, "My mother didn't deserve this.... They had just found a brain tumor a couple of weeks before she was killed. Everyone......

Yesterday, the police arrested the personal assistant to "broker to the stars" Linda Stein in connection with Stein's October 30 murder. Stein, who had also managed the Ramones and later parlayed her connections to sell real estate to celebrities, had been found bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment by her daughter. The police revealed that assistant Natavia Lowery confessed to them that Stein's abuse pushed her over the edge. Police Commissioner Ray......

There's finally been an arrest in the murder of Linda Stein. Yesterday it was reported that the police were interested in re-interviewing Stein's assistant, Brooklyn resident Natavia Lowery, who has a shady past involving identity theft. So it's not all that surprising that today the NYPD announced Lowery has been taken into custody. They found the 26-year old in Virginia Beach, apparently visiting her boyfriend.Police spokesman Paul Browne said Lowery "made statements implicating herself" in......

If you're applying for a mortgage, you're willing to give up your personal details. Unfortunately, for some first-time applicants, their mortgage manager stole their identities - and $1 million. Jacob Milton and his sister Nira Niru were arrested for identity theft, grand larceny and scheming to defraud after investigators at the 115th Precinct received many complaints of ID theft. The police found one common thread: They had all applied for mortgage at Griffin Mortgage's Jackson......

With all the news of identity theft, of course it would have to hit couples who are getting married. The Post has an alarming story about a number of couples who, when applying for a marriage license, have found themselves already "married." It's believed that thieves use other people's identities to get marriage licenses and green cards. Denise Daskalkis "filed two appeals, multiple petitions, and attended a hearing at the Office of Administrative Trials and......

The laptop of a private consultant for the Financial Information Services Agency was stolen from a restaurant last night. The stolen computer could contain the personal financial information of as many as 280,000 retired city employees and the obvious concern is that the information could fall into the hands of identity thieves. The Daily News reports that the data could possibly include the names, address, social security numbers, and pension information of thousands of retirees.......

A man who posed as a police officer in Suffolk County and NYC has been indicted on 54 counts, from first-degree rape to fraud. Twenty-four year-old Terry Henry was held without bail, and one law enforcement source called him a "serial killer in the making." Henry was initially arrested for impersonating a police officer and stealing his landlord's car earlier this year, but investigators found that he used realistic police gear and a car with......

There is nothing like the ratings sweeps seasons on the local news. Thankfully, not all the stations go for the overly sensational stories and will present something that is really worthy of your time. There were many stories, like a day in the life of a paparazzi and part 99,991,047 in the saga of the dangers of myspace.com, but we'll take a look at a three noteworthy sweeps stories from last week. WNBC 4 had......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: 7th Heaven (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WPIX 11) Last year when the show was on the WB it had a series finale, but was brought back by the new CW. This time the show is over, finally. Funniest Mom in America 3 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., Nickelodeon) Despite sounding like a sequel to a bad summer comedy, this is actually a Mother's Day special of a search for a......

The Manhattan DA's office announced that thirteen people were indicted in a identity theft scam. Credit card information from diners in Chinatown and other areas (Brooklyn, Westchester, Long Island, Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Connecticut) would be stolen by wait staff, using handheld credit card skimmers. A list of restaurants where the scam took place was not released. One defendant, JD Kenny, would pay $35-50 per skimmed card information, and then use that information......

When David Clarke of Queens received information from a bank about a $180,000 second mortgage on his Rosedale house - a mortgage he never applied for - he decided to contact the police. And Queens authorities found a Brooklyn couple who had been using Clarke's identity to buy a home in Long Island. Yesterday, the Queens D.A.'s office charged Emerick and Donna Martin with identity theft, second-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and much......

Did you act quickly enough to get Donald Trump's social security number yesterday? The New York Department of State had posted commercial loan documents online that was meant to let lenders view the financial status of loan applicants. The problem was that anyone could search the site and social security numbers were associated with names, including the Donald's. Yikes, the identity theft possibilities were yooge! We're not sure someone could get away with stealing Trump's......

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......

For the "Too Good to Be True, So It's Just Not True" file: The NY Times reports that 23 year old Daniel Markovitz "told people that he could get their parking fines reduced, saying that he knew someone in the Parking Violations Bureau or that he worked for a Web site that helped adjudicate tickets." Markovitz collected up to $780 from each person and did pay off fines for 53 parking tickets (which totaled $4,700).......

Actual New York apartments will provide the setting for something called "The Sublet Experiment". The play, a romantic comedy, will take place in a different subletted apartment each weekend - instead of a regular 'ol theater. The production will not only change spaces every weekend, but will also travel from neighborhood to neighborhood across the five boroughs. The play itself is described as "a comic thriller about love, identity and identity theft as two young......

Mayor Bloomberg released the 2006 Fiscal Year Mayor's Management Report yesterday. The MMR is the Mayor's way of being accountable for city initiatives and agencies, and during the press conference, the Mayor felt that there was still work to be done, saying, "Two-thirds of the things are going in the right direction. A third aren't going as fast as I'd like, or in the right direction.": Like what? The quality of streets has declined (which......

Yet another story about how social networking sites can be dangerous! And this one involves a Brooklyn man who posed as various female Facebook members' friends to get them to somehow give him nude pictures and force them to be his friend. The Post reports that 20 year old Elvin Chaung was charged with identity theft, computer trespass and tampering, coercion and grand larceny after it turned out he was using his Facebook account to......

The scandal is a week old now - Kaavya Viswanathan is the Harvard sophomore who plagiarized passages of her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life from two of author Megan McCafferty's books. But boy, what a week it's been, and everyone (for better or worse) is still talking about it. First, The Crimson broke the story about Viswanathan's prolific cribbing from McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings (while......

- A PATH train overheated this morning at the World Trade Center stop and passengers had to be evacuated - it's no tram drama! - Maury Povich (and his production company) is sued by an employee who makes all sorts of claims from adultery to being forced to watch porn at work - and there's the dressing in low cut shirts - The US's amassador to the UN says the Russian diplomat who drove......

Imagine the luck of the police when they arrested someone involved in an international identity theft ring. They sat down to lunch and watched Andrei Potupa, a 29 year-old Russian immigrant from Bensonhust, withdraw loads and loads of money. After Potupa inserted card after card with stolen account numbers and withdrew handfuls after handfuls of cash, the cops arrested him when he tried to exit the restaurant. He was found with $7,504 and 52 blank......

- NY Magazine interviews Bill Weld about his NY gubernatorial dreams - The NYPD's Organized Theft and Identity Theft Task Force is going strong - A victim's mother is suing the the NYPD detectives who turned mob hitmen for $150 million - Love for Gawker from Conan O'Brien and Will Arnett - The Village Voice on Melvin Van Peebles - Awesome truck photographs from lucky dog on Flickr More pix of the tanker-fire smoke......

Criminals have to have endless reserves of chutzpah, but this case of identity theft is rather incredible. Michael Guerrier of Queens had used the identity of an Upper West Side man to get credit cards and made a couple small purchases over a few months, which went undetected. Then he moved in for the kill by trying to buy a $600,000 house under the stolen identity! Guerrier created a fake driver's license, met with real......

Be still Gothamist's beating heart: Two men have been arrested for placing an "ATM skimming" device onto an ATM in Elmont. The men stoles the account and PIN numbers from a Bank of America branch and took $2500 dollars from ATMs in Manhattan, Rosedale, and Queens. Newsday reports that a witness saw the pair remove the skimming device from the Elmont ATM and followed their car until police stopped them on Queens Boulevard. Go concerned......

Some lucky jurors in Manhattan are debating whether a man really is who he says he is, in this case, "Havelock Woo." Prosecutors are using the case as an example of how they will tackle issues like identity theft, proposing that the supposed Woo took the name to fraud the government and bring relatives from China to the States. Defense claims their client actually reclaimed the identity of Woo. Along the way, they have been......