October 8, 2009
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News: CC Fraud; How Do They Do It? 17
In Sacrament, California, an Oregon man landed in prison for his involvement with a $2 million credit card fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr. sentenced Kevin J. Dixon for a minimum three years and up to six years for criminal activities using prepaid credit cards. The ring apparently took the cards to banks and falsified information saying the cards supposedly had a higher balance. The crooks would give the teller a toll free number to call and rectify the problem. At the other end of the bogus number was another criminal who authorized the teller to enter a certain code that would process the transaction for amounts as much as $9,500. To date, four individuals have been charged in connection with the credit card fraud ring that operated in several states including Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Texas. Dixon pleaded guilty to charges of interstate transportation of money obtained by fraud and is the third to be sentenced.
In Arkansas, and Alma woman pilfered her employer out of over $20,000 in unauthorized credit card charges. Julie Mayes an ex-employee of Protech Security used the company's cards to purchase personal items for herself and her parents including appliances, a lawn mower, trailer, tools, gardening equipment and other lawn items from the local Home Depot and Lowe's stores as well as the online Home Depot. During her two month employment and for several months after her termination at Protech, Mayes concealed documents revealing the illegal credit card transactions. Apparently, Mayes acquired a company key to Protech's post office box and was visiting the post office every morning to intercept the card statements and steal other cards. Mayes activities were discovered when Protech began receiving phone calls from the lenders regarding overdue payments.
A Wisconsin lady received a wedding gift to go down in history when her fiancee decided to skip town to Hawaii to marry another woman. Raymond Jackson didn't look back when he took his plane ride to Hawaii that he had paid for with the credit card he had stolen from his Wisconsin fiancee's home. With him, he also took her laptop, cell phone, suitcase, and a 4,000 diamond engagement ring. Jackson's criminal and unconscionable activities didn't stop there; he also used the stolen card to pay for the hotel, flowers, and other expenses in Hawaii.