Geo-challenged ID thieves charged

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NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Two New York men accused of identity theft say they were getting a measure of revenge for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, officials said Wednesday.

However, Marconian Sockwell and Joseph Ogueri, accused of scamming about $400,000 from a dozen people, victimized 11 people from Bangladesh and one from Nepal, the New York Post said.

Admitting they are targeting any ethnic group exposes the pair to additional hate crime penalties, prosecutors said. The two face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of grand larceny as a hate crime, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

The 88-count criminal complaint said Sockwell and Ogueri posed as employees of a credit-reporting agency to get their victims to reveal personal financial information over the telephone, including credit card account numbers, the complaint said.

Sockwell and Ogueri then would add their names to the credit cards and charge thousands of dollars worth of mail-order diamonds.