Identity Theft Protection Lock

We wrote an article not long ago on pickpocketing and how the crime is committed with various diversions. In this article we are going to describe the ingenious distractions used by these identity thieves and hopefully we will all be the wiser. We do not want to use names, so we will call this criminal Mr. X.

United States Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky announced on June 12, 2008 that a Louisville Kentucky man (Mr. X) pled guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud, Identity Theft, and Aggravated Identity Theft. The thief admitted that between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2007 he and four other men conspired to defraud federally-insured financial institutions and to obtain monies under the control of those institutions by pickpocketing people and stealing their credit cards, and then by uttering the stolen credit cards, along with counterfeit military identification cards, in exchange for money, goods and services.

To increase their revenue Mr. X and his four friends traveled in and around Louisville, in Jefferson County, Kentucky, as well as Florence, Kentucky; Michigan; Tennessee; Georgia; Missouri; Ohio; Indiana; and other states. The men committed offenses at college football games at the University of Kentucky, the University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic University, the University of Tennessee, Ohio State University; at Pro football games including, but not limited to the stadiums of the Indianapolis Colts, Cincinnati Bengals, St. Louis Rams and several teams who played at the Superbowl; and at professional basketball games, including the 2005 NBA finals round 4 games in Detroit, Michigan.

The men also committed the thefts at restaurants, gas stations, malls, grocery stores and other locations. Mr. X and his crew developed and used several identification-making kits by acquiring laptop computers, printers, digital cameras, a program for manufacturing counterfeit military identification cards, a heat seal, a 110 volt laminating machine, an electric power inverter for converting 12 volt to 110 volt, scissors, and exacto knives. The identity thieves used the instruments to make counterfeit United States Uniform Services Commissary Pass identification cards (military identification cards), which contained the thieves pictures and the names of the victims from whom credit cards had been stolen.

You are covered by our $1 Million Total Service Guarantee from the moment you enroll. If in the unfortunate event your identity is misused while you are a LifeLock member, we will pay professionals to resolve the problem for you – up to $1 million!

Mr. X and his crew used military identification cards because they would be readily accepted anywhere in the U.S. After manufacturing matching identification and verifying that the stolen credit card was still active, Mr. X and his friends immediately attended pre-scouted big box and other well known retailers, as well as gasoline stations, restaurants, and other merchants and providers, where they used the stolen credit cards and the counterfeit military identification cards in exchange for gift cards (store credit cards), computers, clothing, gasoline, cartons of cigarettes, food and other merchandise. Before leaving Louisville, sometimes the thieves would accept pre-orders for gift cards, to be sold for half the value of the card to be obtained.

Mr. X admitted to the following specific occurrences, which highlight the acts taken by the band of identity thieves. On November 21, 2005, Mr. X and several of his friends distracted a 75 year old man, when one of them acted as though one of their fingers was caught in the door handle to a popular restaurant in Florence, Kentucky. They quickly pickpocketed the man, taking his wallet that contained a bank visa check card, his Social Security card, his driver’s license, and $50.00 in cash. Next, they used the man’s name and credit card on November 21, 2005 to buy gift cards in the amount of $1,000 and a vacuum cleaner. Also on this same day in November, 2005, Mr. X and his crew tried to pickpocket a 69 year old man at a popular restaurant in Florence, Kentucky by distracting the man when stepping on his foot. The 69 year old knew what they were trying to do and confronted them. The identity thieves immediately dropped the wallet on the floor, exited the restaurant and left the scene in a Lincoln Town Car that belonged to one of the conspirators.

On December 21, 2005 Mr. X and some of his friends pickpocketed a deaf man, by distracting him, then removing his wallet at a gasoline station in Louisville, Kentucky. While still at the gas station they got rid of a wallet containing identification documents from previous victims. Then on December 23, 2005, they tried to use the deaf man’s name and stolen credit card to make a $2,000 purchase of various items at a department store in a mall in Louisville, Kentucky.

On December 29, 2005, Mr. X and some of his merry men traveled by automobile from Louisville to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend the Sugar and Peach Bowl football games. During the trip, they took the time to steal identities and credit card’s and also to use stolen identities and credit card’s. One example is when they stopped in White House, Tennessee and used a victim’s name and credit card to purchase cartons of cigarettes, gasoline and various other items. Also during the trip they stopped at a bus station in Tennessee and pickpocketed another victim, whose name and credit card were later used in Atlanta. During the period of the conspiracy, the identity thieves acquired over $140,000 worth of goods and services by defrauding just one major credit card company.

They also tried, but did not succeed in another $100,000 in additional transactions using the same companies stolen credit card numbers. Mr. X was released from prison on May 14, 2005 and immediately entered into the aforementioned conspiracy. The maximum potential penalties are 85 years in prison, a $3,000,000 fine, and 14 years of supervised release; the minimum is 2 years in prison. Three of the conspirators are scheduled for trial on July 28, 2008. The other two identity thieves have yet to make their first apperances’ in Federal court because of pending capital murder charges in Jefferson Circuit Court related to the murder of a man.

The case against Mr. X was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ann Claire Phillips, and was investigated by the United States Secret Service, the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s Intelligence Unit and Homicide Unit, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. Mr. X entered his plea before Dave Whalin, Magistrate Judge, United States District Court, Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. X is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Charles R. Simpson III on September 4, 2008 at 11:00 a.m., Louisville, Kentucky.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 1:54 am and is filed under Credit Card Fraud, Identity Theft, Identity Thieves in prison. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.