An ID theft ring is broken up in New York City

NEW YORK'S finest have broken up a ID theft ring that was working on an international scale.

According to the BBC the NYPD has detained 86 people after it raided the ID theft ring that was making credit cards to buy high value computer products. A further 21 people are wanted.

The large scale organisation has cost businesses and individuals £8.3m, says the report, most of which was spent on Apple products. Once the gadgets had been acquired the thieves lived a life of luxury, adds the report, while their victims, well, they felt like victims.

"These weren't hold-ups at gunpoint, but the impact on victims was the same," said police commissioner Raymond Kelly as Operation Swiper counted up its arrests. "They were robbed."

The arrests are the result of a two year investigation and used techniques straight out of a how to guide for identity theft. The group recruited workers with access to pay points, such as waiters, and used them to skim data from credit cards. These details were then passed on to people who could punch them into fake cards, and these were handed on to shoppers.

Acquired goods would be sold to crime syndicates in China, the Middle East and Europe, the report adds.

The thieves had "an amazing knowledge of how to use technology.," according to police commissioner Kelly. "The schemes and the imagination that is developing these days are really mind-boggling." µ