Sean Roberson was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for his role in a $30 million scheme to sell nearly 70,000 cards used by criminals across the country to make unauthorized credit and debit card transactions with stolen payment card data.
NEWARK--Sean Roberson got caught up in his first major fraud when he was convicted of selling fake New Jersey driver's licenses and health insurance cards over the internet.
By 2011--then living in Palm Bay, Fl. --he had turned to on-line counterfeit credit cards.
On Tuesday, Roberson was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jose Linares in Newark to six and a half years in prison for his role in a $30 million scheme to sell nearly 70,000 fake cards that investigators said were used by criminals across the country to make unauthorized credit and debit card transactions with stolen payment card data.
Roberson, 40, pleaded guilty in September 2014 to running a Hudson County-based website called fakeplastic.net, which prosecutors said filled thousands of orders for the counterfeit payment cards, as well as the holographic stickers needed to make phony bank credit cards. It also sold holographic overlays that were used to create fake driver's licenses purportedly issued in New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut and Florida, and other states.
The stickers and overlays sold for as little as $1, admitted Roberson, who the U.S. Attorney's office called the "mastermind" of a nationwide operation that fueled his purchase of a home, a boat, a Hummer and a bitcoin account. Losses from the counterfeit cards that were trafficked were estimated at more than $30 million.
His co-defendants charged in the case, Vinicio Gonzalez and Hugo Rebaza, both of Palm Bay, Fl., also entered guilty pleas.
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Gonzalez was responsible for printing and mailing out the phony payment cards, said the FBI in court filings. Rebaza, said investigators, opened "mail drops" with fake identification to receive supplies used to print the counterfeit cards, and also to receive payment from some of Roberson's customers.
Purchases could be made using bitcoin or U.S. currency, with an embossed counterfeit card fetching as much as $15, according to court papers.
Gonzalez was sentenced to three years in prison and Rebaza received a term of 12 months.
One-stop shopping
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman called fakeplastic.net a "one-stop online shop" for credit card fraud. It was allegedly accessed by groups of criminals across the country known as "carding" or "cash out" crews.
Using stolen payment card numbers and related information--often referred to as "track data" or "dumps"--the information was encoded on the magnetic stripe on the back of the fake payment and bank cards, and then used to purchase merchandise or obtain cash from ATM machines until the data theft was discovered.
Stolen account information typically is obtained through hacking or skimming operations that target retail stores or the use of card readers wired into modified ATM locations.
Investigators said the fakeplastic.net website allowed buyers to browse to select the design and look of the fake payment card they were looking to order from a selection of templates bearing the trademarks of legitimate payment card issuers. They could input an account number, name, expiration date and security card directly through the website, and receive an embossed card with all the hacked information.
Bitcoin, which uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks, was the favored means of transactions by fakeplastic.net. (Karen Bleier | AFP/Getty Images)At one point, authorities said fakeplastic.net stopped accepting currency. Posted on the website was the warning: "I strongly urge everyone who is working in our line of work to start using bitcoin. Bitcoin cannot be shutdown by any person or government, it cannot track your ass down, it is anonymous and safe."
In addition to incarceration, Roberson was ordered to pay back $3.5 million. He also forfeited his bitcoin account, a house in Palm Bay, a 2013 Yamaha motorboat and trailer, and a 2008 Hummer.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
