KENNER, La. (WVUE) – A Kenner detective may have stopped a widespread identity theft scheme by taking down a Russian-run website targeting Louisiana residents.

The investigation began in September, when a wave of identical text messages pinged phones across the state instructing recipients to visit a website and pay a $3.75 toll for driving on the Louisiana Turnpike.

Kenner Police Detective Brad Ricke, who received one of these messages, says the scam is deceptive.

“It said you were driving on a toll road in Louisiana and you had to go to this website to pay a $3.75 fee to drive on the highway,” Ricke explained. “If you fail to pay this fee, you will be fined $30.”

When Ricke visited the Geauxpass.info website, he found what appeared to be an official site with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) logo. The website asked for personal information and credit card details, but Ricke, an experienced cybercrime investigator, suspected something was amiss.

“The only thing useful about this website was the parts where your personal information was collected. Name, email address, date of birth, phone number,” Ricke said. “After determining that this was most likely fake, I contacted LA DOTD and spoke with members there and they confirmed that it was indeed fake.”

He then alerted Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley, who encouraged him to pursue the case.

“It’s kind of like a mystery novel, so I said yes, follow it and see where it ends up,” Conley said.

When Kenner Police uncovered a scam like this in the past, Ricke said the department would warn citizens to be careful with their phones and finances. But beyond that, what the police department could do was limited.

Ricke decided to stop the operation altogether rather than issue a warning on his own.

“We needed to close as quickly as possible,” Ricke said. “You want to shut it down so you don’t actively defraud anyone.”

Reached out to the Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

“We are a federal law enforcement agency and conduct federal criminal investigations on a global scale,” said Special Agent Jessica Zuppardo.

Zuppardo says the message Ricke received was a clear example of fraud.

“This is a cyberattack that uses spoofed text messaging to trick people into sharing sensitive information,” Zuppardo said.

He believes he is targeting people all over the state and other parts of the country.

“I work with a lot of people who have out-of-state area codes, and they get messages about the state their area code comes from,” Zuppardo said.

Federal investigators were able to determine that the website came from a server in Russia. Tracking down the people responsible is not such an easy task.

“What can you do? Kenner Police can’t go to Russia and arrest anyone,” Ricke said.

But he obtained a search warrant from a Jefferson County judge allowing the seizure of the fake website; This was an unprecedented action for the Kenner Police Department.

“I don’t know of any other local agency that has done this before,” he continued.

Chief Conley acknowledged the groundbreaking nature of the case.

“It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about. Then when he showed me the banner and said all the traffic was being directed to us to show it was a scam, that kind of sunk it and I thought it was pretty cool,” Conley said. “The judge called him out and praised him because they had never seen anything like this before either. “The work he did actually saved citizens money and worry and saved them from having to go through the steps of having to rebuild your identity if it was stolen.”

Cybersecurity expert Nam Nguyen says scams are common, but the response from Kenner law enforcement has been extraordinary.

“I was actually quite impressed that they found the right organization to report this to, collaborate with, and eliminate it, I thought that was pretty cool.

Ricke and the department are now sharing their approach with neighboring law enforcement agencies.

“Many surrounding municipalities and sheriff’s offices reached out to us for more information, which we were happy to share,” Conley said.

There may be baby steps in this new frontier in the fight against cybercrime, but Conley says: “Now it’s like a game of whack-a-mole, but eventually who knows, maybe it will lead to larger takeovers of other servers.”

If you visited the fake Geaux Pass website and provided your credit card information, investigators say you should monitor your personal information closely to make sure you are not victimized, and contact local law enforcement if you are. .

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