NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The 18 people charged in a massive $200 million credit card fraud scheme are apparently patient.

Authorities and analysts say the widespread, elaborate fraud took years to carry out.

It involved creating false identities and businesses, paying off credit cards to increase their limit, then maxing them out and not paying them off.

The con is tried-and-true but rarely carried out on such a large scale because it is hard to execute.

Industry analyst Al Pascual says it takes years to create a good credit profile and increase a credit limit.

Pascual says the fraud is difficult to detect until it is too late because the cards were used responsibly for so long.

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