Hey, I wanted to share with you my series of tricksters and other criminals. They're mostly about social engineers who use people and machines to make money. This story tells about an event from the 70s. The technical know-how is accordingly old, but the methods are partly transferable to today's schemes. I hope you learn something and learn how to protect yourself.

Stanley Mark Rifkin
General
Stanley Mark Rifkin is a convicted offender and was born in the USA in 1946.
In the fall of 1978, Stanley carried out the largest bank robbery of his time, using a technique called "wire transfer"and used a telephone. He robbed over 10 million US dollars. Before the robbery, Stanley Rifkin worked as a computer consultant from his home in San Fernando Valley, Southern California. Stanley Rifkin also used false identities and by him spied codes to obtain the necessary authentification and alrobbed the Security Pacific Nation Bank, headquartered in Los Angeles.

What is "wire transfer"?

In cashless payment transactions (wire transfer), the transfer is a payment instrument whereby the debtor who is obliged to pay has book money transferred to the payee's (creditor's) institution by means of an instruction to his account-holding credit institution to the debit of his current account.

Involved are:

• the party liable to pay (debtor)
• its account-holding bank
• the payee's account-holding bank
• the payee (creditor)

The heist

Stanley Rifkin worked as a computer consultant for the Security Pacific Nation Bank. To be more specific, he worked at "D level". In the bank's premises there was a wide national network of connections, which allows the banks to transfer money deposits worldwide. To conduct transactions, the Federal Reserve used numeric codes that change daily and provide authentication. This meant that only bank internal staff could have the necessary knowledge to carry out transactions. One of the bank's internal employees was Stanley Rifkin, who was very familiar with the processes. Since the numerical codes were not part of his job per se, this was one of the obstacles he had to overcome. Even though the heist was not until the fall, Stanley had prepared everything diligently. Of course, a telephone transfer had to have a suitable destination. In October 1978 Rifkin posed as an employee of Coast Diamond Distributors and placed a buy order for several million dollars in diamonds with a well-known dealer named Lon Stein. Stein without hesitation requested an order from the company "Russalmaz".

The social engineering part begins

In 1978, Stanley Rifkin intends to visit the bank, as he also has part-time physical duties as a consultant.

So he was a familiar face to the other workers. He was not only known to the workers, but also had nice contacts with the other workers.

He had pleasant conversations, as always, with the staff with whom he had frequent contact and could therefore justify his presence.

It was very important to be in the right room because Stanley Rifkin had to be in sight of the codes.

Near the codes, the hardest part was done. All Stanley had to do was take a close look at the code-of-the-day, memorize it and disappear without a fuss.

• This is sometimes the hardest part because for the rest of the transfer Stanley doesn't have to be
  present. You can't get caught without being there. *

Now Rifkin had to make the telephone transfer. He pretended to be an employee of another branch and instructed a routine transaction of funds into an account at the Irving Trust Company in New York.

• He authenticated the transaction with the code-of-the-day. In addition, the target from which the money is taken had to have enough liquidity. The Irving Trust Company was a well-chosen target. *

In October, the office of "Russalmaz" in Geneva, Switzerland, was contacted. The call came from a Mr. Nelson and informed the "Russalmaz" firm that Stein was acting as a representative of Coast Diamond Distributors and confirmed the liquidity of Security Pacific to finance the transaction. Mr. Nelson informed "Russalmaz" that Lon Stein would be coming by on October 26 to inspect the diamonds. Lon Stein arrived at the office of "Russalmaz" in Geneva on October 26, 1978 and spent the day inspecting the diamonds. Lon Stein came back to Los Angeles with a man who is still unknown today. He settled with "Russalmaz" for over eight million US dollars for 43,200 carats (1 carat = 0.2 grams).

• With Lon Stein's deal, Stanley Rifkin had managed to launder the money captured by the Security Pacific National Bank into hard-to-track diamonds. *

Until today it is still unclear how Stanley Rifkin managed to smuggle the diamonds into the USA.In the first week after the robbery, Rifkin sold twelve diamonds to a jeweler in Los Angeles for about 12,000 US dollars. Rifkin tried to sell diamonds through a middleman named O'Brien. O'Brien, however, was made aware of the news of the heist before the purchase. Rifkin was described as a thief and O'Brien did not hesitate to alert the FBI.

• Stanley Rifkin's plan is blown. He is now trapped on the diamonds with no suitable buyers. The getaway begins. *

Rifkin was with his back to the wall seeking refuge in San Diego to consider his next steps. Because O'Brien, with the help of the FBI, has manufactured some hard evidence. So Rifkin was given no opportunity to surrender. Rifkin was captured on November 5, 1978. A suitcase containing $12,000 and many packages of diamonds were confiscated.

• If Rifkin could have turned himself in, he could have expected mitigating circumstances. *

Stanley Rifkin was released on bail.But he saw his new paid freedom as an opportunity and wanted to heist the Union Bank in Los Angeles with the same method. But now that the FBI was watching him closely, the robbery was a failure. An informant who was involved in the process betrayed for them. The federal agents arrested Rifkin again on February 13, 1979 and also his accomplice Patricia Ferguson. Ferguson was to stand trial on three cases of conspiracy. Rifkin was in court on two wire fraud cases. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison on 26 March 1979.

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Sincerly