Good old-fashioned American ingenuity is what we like to see. Unfortunately in this case it represents the all-too-common American way of earning a buck for free (by living off the teat of the government) or stealing.

Police in Queens, New York last week brought down a network of bank tellers, store employees and restaurant workers in the biggest identity-theft bust in U.S. history.

Crewmembers in five independent Queens fraud rings, with ties to Asia, Africa, China, Europe, and the Middle East, robbed $13 million by using stolen credit cards on massive shopping sprees and luxury vacations.

In all, 111 people involved in the fraud allegedly fenced goods purchased in the shopping sprees for cash.

Police are still searching for 25 of the 111 suspects, and at least four suspects are believed to have fled to Russia.

Police showed off seven firearms and piles of cash totaling $650,000 that they had seized during raids at homes in Richmond Hill and Long Island.

Workers in restaurants, retail shops and bank clerks working in the rings stole credit card numbers from thousands of innocent victims after they used their cards to make legal purchases.

Each crew hired teams of “shoppers” who used the fake cards on lavish shopping sprees at high-end retailers like Macy’s, Nordstrom and Bloomingdales, where they bought Louis Vuitton handbags, Gucci and Stuart Weissman shoes and Christian Dior beauty products – items that were easy to resell, law enforcement sources said.

The suspects also bought dozens of iPods, iPhones and Rolex watches.

The 16-month investigation dubbed Operation Swiper, involved Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish interpreters for suspects who foolishly logged their journey into the high life on Twitter and Facebook.

Queens resident Amar was overseeing the entire operation, led one ring. Singh worked with an army of shoppers and fences who converted high-end goods into cash.

Singh allegedly received blank credit cards and account numbers of stolen cards that he gave to suspects to make the purchases. To avoid being questioned or caught by store employees, the suspects used forged ID cards.

Singh employed his girlfriend, Pumjuai Singh, 21, as his top lieutenant. She received the high-ticket items purchased with the fake cards, sold them and funneled the cash through her personal bank account.

Once again, why can’t you try to make an honest buck. Life would be so much better for all of us if we all just did not take, swindle, steal or otherwise illegally cajole, what does not belong to us.