6 Hackers Arrested in Computer Fraud, Phone-Access Theft : Crime: Huntington Beach man is among those held after Internet sting set up by U.S. Secret Service agents.

A Huntington Beach computer hacker--known on-line as “Alpha Bits”--was among six suspects arrested in four states by the U.S. Secret Service for allegedly using technology to steal credit card and cellular phone information worth millions of dollars, authorities said Monday.

Jeremy Golle Cushing, 22, on Monday waived extradition proceedings before a U.S. magistrate in Orange County and will be taken by U.S. marshals to Newark, N.J., within three weeks to be arraigned on federal computer fraud charges, authorities said.

Cushing is suspected of trafficking in cloned cellular telephone equipment and stolen access devices used to program cellular phones. He was already on probation after pleading guilty last year to 18 felony charges, including passing bad checks, theft of cards or codes for financial access and receiving stolen property, officials said.

The arrests of Cushing and others Friday in New York, Texas and Michigan were part of “Operation Cybersnare,” a sting operated via the Internet. Agents set up and advertised a computer bulletin board called “Celco 51” in Bergen County, N.J., as a clearinghouse of sorts for stolen data. An agent, using the computer moniker “Carder One,” posed as the board’s operator and offered to fence stolen data for hackers, officials said.

The bulletin board was targeting the hackers who pilfer the electronic serial numbers and mobile identification numbers used to encode cellular telephones. With those codes, a computer criminal can program any cellular phone to bill all its calls to the person whose code numbers have been stolen, officials said.

Cushing, who spent a year in jail for his past offenses, faces 15 years and $250,000 in fines if found guilty of the latest charges. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark, according to Secret Service Special Agent Jim Bauer of the Los Angeles office.

The other suspects arrested were Richard Lacap of Katy, Tex., who uses the computer alias “Chillin,” and Kevin Watkins of Houston, known on-line as “Led.” They were charged with conspiring to break into the computer system of an Oregon cellular telephone company.

Frank Natoli, also known as “Mmind,” of Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged with trafficking in stolen access devices. Michael Clarkson, known as “Barcode,” also of Brooklyn, was charged with possessing and trafficking in hardware used to obtain unauthorized access to telecommunications services. Al Bradford of Detroit, who calls himself “Cellfone,” was charged with trafficking in unauthorized access devices.

Agents seized more than 20 computer systems during the arrests. Cushing was arrested Friday in Huntington Beach without incident, Bauer said.