It appears that there are a number of sources that are questioning the indictment of Gonzalez as a ring-leader such as the NY Times. I agree that Gonzalez is wrongly accused as the “ring-leader” of the operation - but for different reasons.1. Gonzalez is likely just a low level carder (one who gathers and sells credit and debit card information), and one that was once on the secret service payroll to infiltrate the carder network. No different than other junkies that break into cars to steal ID information for drug money, but he just happened to use a more efficient method. SQL injection and wifi-sniffing are not very sophisticated attacks - nor was Albert’s MO - including leading a very lavish and noisy personal life. He used ICQ to chat with other affiliates and didn’t try to hard to protect information related to his wrong-doings.
2. The eastern European individuals named in the indictment appear to be MUCH more sophisticated as they organize the processes of converting the stolen information into cash. These guys are likely to be the real ring-leaders of the operation as they take the largest share of the profits. They normally operate out of non-extradition countries where they are permitted to operate as they wish. They still do slip up from time to time though as you can see with Maksym Yastremski sitting in Turkish Prison.
3. Even Gonzalez lawyer charges that Damon Toey was more of a ring-leader than Albert - but in reality both of these guys are simply carders - good ones, but carders nonetheless, both fencing card information to the European guys overseas for a small piece of the action.
It is my opinion that the US Attorney’s offices should describe these truths an these guys involvement in the scheme rather than try to make it falsely appear to the public that they’ve caught the “ring-leaders”. The should equally provide public information on how the whole scheme works. Wikipedia has some decent information for the uninformed, but doesn't get into how the organized portion of the fraud scheme really works. The RCMP even have a page for information, but again it just touches on the subject.
Maybe someone can post a link to a better explanation of the entire scheme.
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