Stolen Hopkins patient info used in $600K credit card fraud

Don't assume that your facility is immune to an inside job. A Johns Hopkins Hospital employee stole the names, social security numbers, birth dates, and addresses from patients and gave them to friends who obtained "instant credit" at stores to buy more than $600,000 in merchandise, federal officials alleged in an indictment issued on Friday.

A federal grand jury indicted Jasmine Smith, the Hopkins employee, and four others on fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in a fraudulent credit card scheme based on stolen patient information, according to an announcement made by the Maryland District's U.S. Attorney and other officials.

Smith, who worked at Johns Hopkins from August 2007 to March 2009, allegedly gave the stolen patient information to Ayanna Johnson and Gloria Canada, both of Baltimore. And from May 2008 to June 2009, Michael Allen and Tyrell McCormick allegedly used the information to apply for instant credit and make purchases before the identity theft victims received their credit cards in the mail. They fraudulently obtained more than $600,000 in credit from over 50 institutional and individual victims, including banks, Sears, Best Buy and Toys R Us, the Baltimore Sun blog reports.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and two years in prison for aggravated identity theft. McCormick and Allen could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for bank fraud and 15 years in jail for access device fraud.

To learn more:
- read the press release from the U.S. Attorney's office
- read the eSecurityPlanet article
- read the Baltimore Sun blog

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