WIREDGOV

A man who admitted stealing personal data and creating identity documents for use in fraud has been sentenced to nearly five years’ imprisonment.

Andrei Sergejev, who turns 42 tomorrow, used the moniker “tetereff” to trade in compromised financial data online. When investigators linked the username to Sergejev, the Estonian national was arrested at his house in Walthamstow, London, in March 2012.

Analysis of Sergejev’s computer equipment revealed compromised financial data, including utility bills and bank statements in numerous names. Investigators believe he was compiling false ID packages as a service for criminals to use in financial fraud, and to facilitate international travel using false documents.

Also found at Sergejev’s address were large numbers of hard copy financial and identity douments in different names, as well as £2000 in cash and a small quantity of cannabis.

Sergejev pleaded guilty last month to twelve charges of making an article used in fraud, and two counts relating to the cannabis. On Tuesday 15 July, he was handed a total of four years and nine months in prison for those offences.

A two year sentence for possession of articles used in fraud will run concurrently.

Steve Pye, of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said:

“Once again, a criminal has found that operating online under an assumed name was not enough to escape the attentions of law enforcement. Sergejev was facilitating fraud on a significant scale, and this type of criminality comes at a significant cost to businesses and individuals in the UK.  The National Crime Agency continues its efforts to drive down the threat from online crime.”