Hey, there! Log in / Register
Man gets five years for selling discounted MBTA passes he'd bought with other people's credit-card info
By adamg on Fri, 11/19/2021 - 5:26pm
Kokou Kuakumensah, 31, of Worcester, was sentenced to five years in federal prison today after admitting he programmed blank credit cards with other people's digits and then used them at ticket kiosks at MBTA stations to buy monthly passes he'd then sell through Craigslist and at the Grafton station on the Worcester line, the US Attorney's office reports.
Kuakumensah pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft in July, when he admitted he'd managed to obtain some $157,000 in passes between January, 2019 and March, 2020.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Sometimes
Sometimes I wonder where these folks head's are.
Not only is this a lot of work but to print up cards and use them in person. Its like doncha know there's cameras at each one of these things? They will eventually get you.
Then you have to hustle and sell them at CR stations? You know.. that weird guy who walks up to ppl and asks if they want one. I dont care how desperate I am, I wouldn't buy a 'discount' T pass from anyone except a vending machine. It just screams 'scalper' and scam.
Looks like he sold on Craigslist too.
Gotta hand it to this hustler for hard work even if not much for brains and a sense of wrong doing.
Had he done this on a grander scale at a higher level from the inside and with an old boy connection, he’d likely have gotten a lighter sentence. Lots of bigger frauds than he walking among us.
yeah
Thats what I thought too. He has some brains.. sure you can look this stuff up online, but to have some sense on how to know how to encode credit cards (it isn't THAT hard) does take some skill.
Not his first time...
Not his first time...
"Kuakumensah has a history of grifting, according to court records: He was charged in Eastern Kentucky in 2012 with illegally using four different credit card numbers. Court records say he recruited three Baltimore college students to head to Kentucky and re-encode gift cards with real people’s credit card information. Authorities said he tried to execute this scheme in Lexington and, after he was released, in South Carolina.
He quickly pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in the pokey. Court records show his parole transferred to Massachusetts in April 2019, expected to run through February 2020."
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/01/16/worcester-man-illegally-bought-f...
free
Mayor Wu will make those passes worthless by dropping fares on the MBTA to zero!
Please explain
How is she going to do that?
The MBTA is a state authority.
Wu is mayor of Boston.
link
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/11/17/boston-mayor-michelle-wu-eyes-fre...
You say that like its a bad
You say that like its a bad thing.
It is a bad thing
Tons of people who live/work in Boston never use the T and will not happily subsidize those who do.
Why not? If I drove, I'd
Why not? If I drove, I'd gladly pay a bit more to keep other people off the road to lessen traffic and make it easier to park.
Just like you won’t pay them a living wage.
How do you think the many people who do the many little things that make it possible to own a car and drive it to Boston get to work themselves?
You use the T as much as the rest of us.
CHARLIE CARDS
Why can't our agencies be smarter than these guys. We cannot even spell his name.
So this was the jerk who made Jan 2020 even worse?
Me: there’s a fraudulent charge
Credit Card Company: were the cards in your possession?
Me: yes
CCC: the card was used in Copley Square*, it wasn’t an online transaction.
Me: yes, but we were on an airplane, 2 miles above the earth and at least 400 miles from Copley square when it happened.
CCC: but you have your cards.
Me: yes.
(Repeat ad nauseum for 2 billing cycles. They did finally reverse the charges, *not really Copley Square)
You’d think they’d know about this scam
So now we all know more about this type of fraud than a credit card fraud department. At least now if it happens to us, we can explain how trivial it is to make a fake card.
$25 round trip to Boston inspired him, surely
But five years is a lot longer sentence than gun charges and violent criminals get. The fed is tough!
Wow a year less than the man
Wow a year less than the man who led police on high-speed chase from Storrow Drive, across the Tobin, into Chelsea.
But you know….
…. public transportation and credit cards are soooooo dangerous.