Pittsburgh Woman Arrested in Multi-State Identity Theft Case
07/03/2013
Pittsburgh Woman Arrested in Multi-State Identity Theft Case
In March 2013, the NC3TF was contacted by a Reno Nevada Detective regarding several reports of Identity Theft from a particular neighborhood in Reno. All of the victim’s reported that the fraud was occurring in the San Francisco Bay area and based on surveillance footage the fraud was being perpetrated by an unidentified Female.
Reno PD forwarded the case to the NC3TF for the follow up investigation.
Through investigation we found that the suspect was using credit cards that had one name and credit card number embossed on the front of the card but the magnetic strip held a different victim’s name and credit card number. The suspect had Driver’s licenses from various states with her own picture but personal identifying information to match the name on the face of the credit card. The credit card information on the magnetic strips was the information from the Reno victims.
The surveillance photos of the suspect were circulated to Law Enforcement agencies throughout the Bay Area and the suspect was identified by a Berkeley Police Officer.
Further investigation into the suspect revealed that she was currently living in Pittsburgh, CA, and was on Federal Probation for Identity Theft.
A search warrant for the suspect’s residence was obtained and served. The suspect was arrested at the residence.
A search of the residence revealed property and receipts from the various fraudulent transactions related to the Reno victims. Additional credit cards, receipts related to the use of the cards, and the property purchased was located. Further investigation into those cards revealed that they too were fraudulent.
The suspect was interviewed and admitted to the use of the cards. The suspect further explained that she purchased the credit card information from a “carding” web site and paid for the information by through Western Union. She purchased the fake drivers licenses from a local source. In total she believes that she spent approximately $1,000.00 for 5 credit cards and matching I.D.’s.
Thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise and related receipts were found. The total dollar loss related to these 5 victims is believed to be much higher.