Meanwhile, a ring connected to the Long Beach Insane Crips used a check-cashing scheme to steal more than $88,000 from multiple branches of the Washington Mutual thrift, said Kathryn Showers, a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County.
In a series of associated criminal cases, investigators said 15 conspirators used counterfeit checks and money orders and persuaded people to deposit the bogus documents and then withdraw cash. A similar plot took in more than $150,000 from Bank of America branches in Northridge, Granada Hills and elsewhere, court filings show.
Searches in March 2006 turned up guns, computers and paperwork for building false identities, and Showers said the group paid tellers to approve withdrawals they shouldn't have. Several ringleaders have pleaded guilty.
"Theft of identifying information is going on at all kinds of levels," Showers said in an interview. "Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in Southern California."
A May criminal case against a group affiliated with Armenian Power accuses five people of raiding the accounts of people who merely used the wrong ATMs at the wrong times.
This year, the men put false keypads on top of legitimate ATMs to record passwords and later withdrew money from 120 accounts, according to the complaint.
Targeted ATMs included Wells Fargo machines at a Vons supermarket on Reseda Boulevard, a Ralphs on North La Brea Avenue and a Stater Bros. in Walnut.
Some of the men face as many as 90 criminal charges.
Gang members sometimes recruit corporate insiders, said Linda Foley, co-founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a San Diego nonprofit group that helped with the study. They visit restaurants and other hangouts, listening for people complaining about money troubles, then offer cash in exchange for information they can use in identity theft.
She said gang members need to do such things because they often have trouble finding a job and having the opportunity to orchestrate an inside job on their own. "It can be hard to get hired when there's a swastika tattooed on your head," Foley said.
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joseph.menn@latimes.com
