‘Hacker Fraud’ Sleuths Bring More Charges

Arizona authorities announced Friday that they had filed the second set of charges stemming from a May, 1990, nationwide series of raids aimed at financial fraud using computers and telephones.

More than 50,000 pieces of computer equipment were seized in 14 cities--including Los Angeles--during the state-federal Operation Sun Devil.

On Friday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced that it had arrested Baron Monroe Majette, also known as “Doc Savage,” in Phoenix. Majette, 19, was charged with three counts of fraudulent schemes and three counts of conspiracy.

Maricopa County Atty. Richard M. Romley said, “This is relatively new for law enforcement. Where computers are used to commit crime, this office intends to prosecute the responsible parties.”

The indictment charges Majette with falsely posing as an employee of a Phoenix Toys R Us store on two occasions to illegally gain access to an American Telephone & Telegraph conference call line. The indictment says the values of the calls were $4,069.68 and $4,057.42.

Additionally, Majette was charged with using a computer to illegally gain access to TRW’s credit database, from which he extracted names, addresses, Social Security records, credit history records and other data. Persons who succeed in obtaining unauthorized access to databases are known as “hackers.”

Majette used the TRW credit information to create false billing addresses to obtain Citibank credit cards and made purchases exceeding $50,000 on the cards between August 1, 1989, and May 8, 1990, according to the indictment.

Majette allegedly opened one or more “mail drops” at private mail services or storage lockers under false names to facilitate the scheme.

And between Oct. 1 and Oct. 26, 1990, he allegedly made unauthorized purchases exceeding $10,000 with a Citibank credit card and other credit cards.

An Arizona judge set $4,900 bail on Majette, who was working at a Phoenix restaurant at the time of his arrest, according to Arizona authorities.

A public defender was appointed to represent him, but the attorney was unavailable for comment.

The Sun Devil raids were controversial because considerable equipment was seized and virtually none of it has been returned to its owners. This week, Dale Boll, deputy director of the Secret Service’s fraud division, defended the operation but said the agency would have done some things differently. He added that several new cases will be filed in coming months.