Crime of the Day:
Minh Phuong Ngoc Wong, a U.S. resident, has confessed to a bizarre conspiracy: he rented out his identity to North Korean IT workers, letting them infiltrate American companies under his name.
The dirty details:
- Wong sold his name to developers in China tied to North Korea.
- Under his identity, they snagged at least 13 remote tech jobs in the U.S.
- They worked on sensitive projects for government agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), gaining access to critical infrastructure.
- Their paychecks allegedly helped bankroll North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
- Meanwhile, Wong was working in a nail salon — no tech degree, no real IT skills, just a face for hire.
The scam was childishly simple: Wong aced job interviews and paperwork; the real work was done by North Korean coders sitting comfortably in Shenyang. Over three years, Wong pocketed almost $1 million.
The FBI now warns: this isn’t an isolated case. Thousands of North Korean IT workers are quietly embedded across U.S. companies, using fake identities, generating up to $600 million a year.
And it doesn’t stop there. Google’s latest report says fake IT specialists are already knocking on the doors of Europe’s defense industry too.
