"We would obtain email from one account that had a list of credit card numbers and instructions on how to create counterfeit credit cards," said Honolulu deputy prosecutor Chris van Marter, who also heads the city's cyber and white collar crimes unit.

Armed with that kind of access online, he said the hunt kicked into overdrive for a group of identity thieves from Brooklyn, N.Y., who traveled to Waikiki.

"These five visitors were not tourists. They were criminals," said Honolulu prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro.

Detectives said from the minute they got to Hawaii, they were ready to splurge.

The group of identity thieves arrived in April 2012, and detectives said the first thing they did was check in to the Trump Hotel in Waikiki.

Law enforcement officers arrested three women and two men.

In some pictures collected by detectives, the alleged criminals were dressed up in swanky stolen clothes.

Detectives said the theft ring first stole the credit card numbers from 17 victims, who all ate at the same restaurant in New York.

They then made new cards, with new names on those cards.

According to the indictment, the group spent $325,437 in just a few days.