How much crime could an online stop theft class have? As a counselor for both in class and online theft classes I assure you the recidivism rate for theft is less after taking the class than having not gotten caught. Perhaps, had everyone been forced to take a theft class some of the $13 million that was ripped off in the following story would still be around.

A New York City crackdown on suspects allegedly involved in forged credit cards and identity theft led authorities to a $13 million global crime ring.

It is the largest and perhaps most sophisticated ring of its kind in U.S. history. Authorities hired translators to eavesdrop on a series of conversations in Arabic, Russian and Mandarin that led police to 86 suspects in a series of raids.

The defendants, who were charged with stealing the personal credit information of thousands of unwitting American and European consumers, are allegedly members of five organized crime rings with ties to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Twenty-five members of the ring remain at large.

All of the 111 suspects were indicted in the theft case, while nearly two dozen of them were also charged in six indictments related to burglaries and robberies.

Several suspects are believed to have engaged in "nationwide shopping sprees, staying at five-star hotels, renting luxury automobiles and private jets, and purchasing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of high-end electronics and expensive handbags and jewelry with forged credit cards."

The two-year probe, dubbed Operation Swiper, involved physical surveillance, intelligence gathering and court-authorized electronic eavesdropping on dozens of telephones in which thousands of conversations were intercepted.

The amount of theft that is uncovered daily is staggering. Imagine the amount of theft that goes on unnoticed!