Man enables $50 million in ID theft

A computer technician who prosecutors said made possible the largest identity theft in U.S. history, surpassing $50 million, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy in a scheme that poached personal information from tens of thousands of people.

Philip A. Cummings, 35, said he did not realize that his accomplices would do so much damage with the information he sold.

“I didn’t know the magnification,” he told U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, who set sentencing for Jan. 11. However, he acknowledged that he knew his actions were wrong and illegal.

Cummings worked from mid-1999 through August 2000 as a help-desk worker at Teledata Communications Inc., a Long Island computer software company that provides banks with computerized access to credit information databases.