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I suspect the photo was a kind of test to see if the target was asleep at the wheel. If the photo had been instantly recognized, the scammer would have simply moved on in search of softer targets.

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The irony of it was that they already had a whale on the hook. The person whose identity that they had stolen was someone with an incredible net worth. They actually had direct access to his bank account and funded the account on our side with an ACH transfer. The bank reversed the transfer once the guy figured out his account had been hit, but by then it was too late on our side and the goods had already gone out the door.

I have no idea why they used that picture - they took a template driver license, populated it with the guy's personal information, pasted the picture on it, then faxed it to us. I suppose they figured it would be so grainy from the fax that it wouldn't be obvious, or maybe they just did it for the lulz.

It is a kind of reverse Pons Asinorum.

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