So many people with marginal ethics, so many dummies that think they really can beat the system. We’ve said it before, Not Every Fraudster is as Smart as Alberto Gonzalez. Alberto was slick. Slick enough to steal 170 million credit card account numbers. Today, Alberto is doing 20 years in the Yazoo City Federal Correctional Institution, located in southern Mississippi. Sometimes people beat the system before the law catches up. Remember Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman? Time caught up with him, too.
Today, we pull out 4 credit card fraud cases that caught up with small-time criminals, not meeting the threshold of Alberto or the boldness of Willy. Small timers, who tried to cheat but got caught. This is not the biggest thing in cards, but you deserve five minutes of pondering about how well law enforcement works in the U.S., and how merchants play a role in the credit card fraud protection.
Case 1: The Dumb Lover
This incident actually happened five minutes from my home in Tampa, Florida. Deputies noted that our credit card thief stole a woman’s car from her driveway. The woman also happened to leave her purse in the car, so our thief had the opportunity to steal her credit cards. The crook was shamed into turning himself in after the Pasco County Sheriff posted a security video on Facebook. The story goes:
- On Sunday, the sheriff’s office posted surveillance photos on Facebook showing a suspect who used a stolen credit card in three separate transactions in Land O’ Lakes and Wesley Chapel.
- After seeing his picture on the news, deputies say 18-year-old Roman Delvecchio turned himself in at the Pasco County Jail.
- According to an arrest report, Delvecchio admitted he stole a woman’s car from her driveway on Feb. 1. Deputies say he admitted the keys were in the cup holder and there was a purse in the car.
- The arrest report says Delvecchio then used the victim’s credit cards at several different stores to buy items including flowers and a large teddy bear.
- In the original Facebook post, deputies said it appeared he “may have been doing some felony shopping for Valentine’s Day.”
Case 2: Stealing from Grandma
Now, my maternal grandmother was this 4’11” first generation woman from Sicily that died at the age of 103. If you did this, Man, Woman or Beast, she’d probably put you over her knee for a good spanking. The Bozeman (Montana) Chronical reports….
- A Bozeman woman who admitted running up more than $100,000 of debt on her grandmother’s credit cards was handed a six-year deferred sentence and ordered to repay $25,153.
- Kami Reihman appeared before District Judge Holly Brown on Tuesday in Gallatin County District Court.
- As part of a plea agreement, Reihman admitted in December to using her grandmother’s credit card for purchases she did not authorize, including thousands of dollars at a tanning salon, a gym and more.
- After Duke spoke, the judge asked Reihman if there was anything she wished to add.
- “I wish that I would have made better choices, your honor,” Reihman told Brown.
- Brown lectured Reihman about credit card debt. She told Reihman that credit card companies are ruthless when trying to recover debt.
- “They don’t care how a charge is made, or who makes it,” (Judge) Brown said. “They only care about getting paid.”
Case 3: Using a Dead Woman’s Card
Now, you’ve got to be kidding with this one.
- A serial fraudster who was cleared of murdering her neighbor has been jailed for going on a wild spending spree with her money.
- Noeline Childs, 51, racked up nearly $20,000 at tobacco shops, KFC, Target, Big W and several other food and retail outlets in the days before Christmas in 2014.
- The bank card used for the transactions belonged to Kerry Bromley, a 57-year-old woman who lived in the same Western Sydney caravan park as Childs.
- The following day, Childs unsuccessfully tried to transfer more than $101,000 from Ms. Bromley’s account, using the descriptions including ‘balance owing to Noelene’.
- She later managed to transfer $5,000.
Case 4: The Dirty Programmer
- This one is my favorite. PC Magazine pulled this story from the South China Morning Post. A programmer, a hole in midnight processing, one million bucks.
- Qin Qisheng, 43, a former manager in Huaxia Bank’s technology development centre (sic) in Beijing, spotted a loophole in the bank’s core operating system that meant cash withdrawals made around midnight were not recorded.
- Qin discovered the flaw in the system in 2016 and in November that year he inserted a few scripts in the banking system which he said would allow him to test the loophole without triggering an alert.
- For more than a year he made cash withdrawals of between 5,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan (US$740-US$2,965) from a dummy account the bank used to test its systems.
- By January 2018 he had amassed over seven million yuan – the equivalent of just over a million US dollars – without telling his superiors what he was doing.
- Huaxia bank, a publicly listed concern founded in 1992, told the court it had now fixed the problem.
Fun stories but back to business. Take a look at how we think text messaging can help resolve disputed transactions and help mitigate fraud!