Smart employees help police catch identity thieves
Photo by: saxon
Alert employees at a shopping mall helped police arrest three individuals trying to make purchases using fake credit cards. Charles Ingram and Valdaze McDaniel from Overland Park, Kansas and Bryan Gatlin of Roswell (Ga) were arrested early this month when they were out shopping at the Marley Station mall in Anne Arundel County.
They were charged under several counts of fraud and theft. Police believe the men used stolen identities to make fake cards and used them to make purchases. Payment for purchases made in this manner are borne by the original owner of the card. Officials from the county police force suspect they were using such cards at the store when they were nabbed. Items were purchased for being sold later at online auction sites, police allege.
The trio, it is believed, had access to innumerable stolen identities-when they were caught they were using cards owned by residents of Alabama. They might have got the identities either by operating a phishing scam or by purchasing it online. It has become easier to purchase stolen identities online as the internet has become a supermarket of sorts for trading in this item.
The men raised suspicion of staff present as they were shopping for expensive items at the mall. Staff confronted their suspicions and checked details of the specific card account used by the group.
It did not take them long to figure out that the profile of the original card holders did not match with the suspicious shoppers. Yet, in order to confirm, they called up the original card owners using phone numbers mentioned in the profile, who expressed surprised on receiving their calls. They informed the store they had not opened any credit account there.
The staff immediately alerted the police who hastened to the store and apprehended the three men. One of them was arrested after a scuffle while the other two are said to have given in meekly.
Police also seized some cash found on their person, presuming it to be money obtained from the scam.
Source: Baltimore Sun
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