NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A "prolific" card-swiping operation that targeted thousands landed a Newport News man in prison on Friday.
Damier Dorsey was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft that totaled more than $1.5 million in loss, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
"The operation was so prolific that a co-conspirator approximated that she and Dorsey spent $10,000 per week on re-encoded and re-embossed credit and debit cards," a release from the DOJ reads.
The 29-year-old's conviction comes after officials said he and his accomplices bragged about committing fraud in a music video.
Using the "darknet," the DOJ says Dorsey and his accomplices purchased account information of identity theft victims before uploading that information onto cards they could use.
The scheme, which started in 2017 with Dorsey purchasing cigarettes that he resold to a local business, eventually advanced. In 2018, the DOJ said the suspects began purchasing items for resale and lottery tickets to launder proceeds via the Virginia Lottery.
When Dorsey and an accomplice were pulled over in 2019, the Virginia State Police (VSP) recovered several credit cards, a credit card embossing machine and more than $23,000. A subsequent search of Dorsey's home led to the discovery of re-encoded credit cards, a magnetic strip card reader and writer and lottery tickets among other incriminating items.
