An online business selling custom counterfeit credit cards found a recent buyer in St. Paul. He was nabbed when police made the delivery.

A search warrant filed in Ramsey County District Court offers a glimpse into the stolen credit card data racket, outlining the investigation of a website called, a "large-scale seller of authentication features for false identification documents and customized counterfeit credit and debit cards." The investigation was led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, with help from St. Paul police.

According to the search warrant affidavit, there's a well-developed underground international Internet marketplace where criminals can buy and sell credit and debit card data, such as the up to 40 million customer records recently reported stolen from Target customers.

Crooks operating as "carding" or "cash out" crews can buy that stolen data and use it to reprogram the magnetic stripe on the back of gift cards or prepaid credit or debit cards and use those to make unauthorized purchases on the stolen accounts, according to the search warrant.

To a retailer's card-swipe machine, an altered gift card or debit card could appear to be someone else's credit card. However, a sharp-eyed retail clerk might notice that credit card data stored on the fake card's magnetic stripe on the back doesn't match the face of the card, according to the search warrant.

Suspicions would be raised, for example, if a would-be crook were making an American Express account purchase with what looked like a gift card or a credit card with numbers that don't match.

Making high-quality counterfeit cards -- where the image and numbers printed on the card agree with the stolen account data on the altered magnetic strip -- requires "expensive, specialized equipment," according to the search warrant.


The website offered "custom-embossed counterfeit cards," according to the search warrant. It's an "online retail shop for cash out operations seeking to purchase high-end, realistic counterfeit payment cards," the warrant affidavit said.

The website offered an online catalog of fake cards designed to look like legitimate credit or debit cards, bearing the trademarks of various banks, the search warrant said. You also could order credit cards custom embossed with raised print type for names, account numbers, expiration dates, CVV (card verification value) or CID (card identification) numbers, as well as holographic stickers or overlays for credit cards and state identification cards.

"These criminals could now order what they needed for their cash out operations directly from the (Fakeplastic) website, eliminating the need to invest in expensive hardware," the search warrant affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, the website was owned and operated since the middle of 2012 by an individual from Palm Bay, Fla. That person ended up cooperating with police, who seized the equipment and materials used to make the fake credit cards.

As of Dec. 5, police assumed control of the Fakeplastic website and email account used by customers to place orders so that new orders for counterfeit cards were being sent straight to law enforcement officers, the affidavit said.

Which is why an undercover officer, posing as a letter carrier, approached a duplex in the 500 block of Blair Avenue in St. Paul on Dec. 19, with a Priority Mail Express 1-Day package. The officer was appearing to deliver a Fakeplastic order, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit said someone at that address had placed an order for 100 embossed credit cards at a cost of $1,184.80. The Fakeplastic records showed that 17 similar orders were previously mailed to the address, the affidavit said.

In a search of one unit at the address, police seized several computers, cellphones, cameras, hard drives, thumb drives, a "skimmer" and a Glock .45 handgun.

The resident of the unit, Jaime Ira Henning, 26, was charged with illegal possession of a firearm.

Henning also faces two charges in Hennepin County District Court of transaction card fraud after he was arrested Jan. 30 in Bloomington with two other men. The three were involved in a scheme involving fake credit cards used to make purchases at Walmart stores, according to a criminal complaint.

Henning could not be reached for comment Friday.
