February 28,2009
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News: A Higher Education in CC Legalities.
Was that Penn State or State Pen? That depends on which week you're asking about for some students. Three students; Marshall Scott Bratton (student), Michael Alexander (student) and Shane S. Boseman (waiter) have all pled guilty to various charges in a credit card fraud case. In the scheme, the three conspired and participated in stealing sensitive credit card data from customers patronizing the LaCroix Restaurant, within the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia. Boseman, who served there as a waiter, would steal magnetic stripe data from customer credit cards (probably using a pocket skimmer).
Alexander would then manufacture counterfeit credit cards with his name embossed on the front and then use the swiped swipe data from the mag strips stolen by Boseman. With the new fake cards, Bratton would then charge expensive purchases, like television sets and laptop computers, on those cards. Rather than making the charges in person, he would line up ‘other people' to do it for him, while he waited outside. Bratton, in addition, was also implicated in a scheme for stealing actual credit cards from a cleaning job where worked called "The Cell Block". He may be extending his work cleaning cell blocks but, with less pay. This charge hasn't come to the docket yet.
For now, we do know that the three have all pled guilty in the credit card fraud case, tried in U.S. Middle District Court; Judge John E. Jones III presiding. None of the sentencing has taken place yet but, for Bratton the court is recommending a light sentence through a plea. Since he is soon to graduate from Penn State with an engineering degree, the recommendation is that he be placed on probation. Meanwhile he must share restitution of $5,930 as part of the plea and will be released on his own recognizance while his sentencing is pending.