Man caught committing identity theft to pay off student loan

The police arrested a 32-year-old man in Groningen on suspicion of computer fraud, identity fraud and money laundering. He was caught buying items online with stolen identities and then reselling them. He told the police he did so to pay off his student loan, the police said in a statement.

The man placed so-called key-loggers on two public computers at an educational institution in the city of Groningen. Key-loggers record what keys are hit on a keyboard, which gave the man access to, for example, credit card information or login details.

The suspect placed orders at online store, buying mostly things like hard drives, using other people's login details and charging the costs to their accounts. He did not have the packages delivered to himself, but to student apartments with outside mailboxes, so he could retrieve the packages after they were delivered. He then resold the items he ordered. According to the police, he made thousands of euros in this way.

The police started investigating this case after receiving over 20 reports from people who noticed online purchases made without their knowledge under their name at several online stores.

The suspect was arrested on July 13th, at a delivery address of a recent purchase. The police searched his home and seized his computer. According to the police, while questioning the suspect it already became clear that he indeed placed the key-loggers and made the purchases.