A Phenix City, Alabama, resident was sentenced yesterday to serve 111 months in prison for her role in a more than $3 million Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF) tax scheme. Carnesha Alexander was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $840,692. On Feb. 5, a…
Category: ID Theft
IRS’s Top Ten Identity Theft Prosecutions
Continuing its enforcement push against refund fraud and identity theft, the Internal Revenue Service announced the Top Ten Identity Theft Prosecutions for Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14). The ongoing efforts to bring identity thieves to justice remains a significant priority as part of the IRS’s comprehensive identity theft strategy focusing on preventing, detecting and resolving identity…
NC: Nurse, pastor’s wife pleads guilty to ID theft
Diane Turbyfill reports: A Belmont woman used her position as a nurse and pastor’s wife to defraud two elderly people. Deborah Costner Taylor pleaded guilty in court Friday to identity theft and obtaining property by false pretense. […] She is married to the pastor of East Belmont Baptist Church and worked at CaroMont Regional Medical…
Bank of America Claims Victim “Benefited” From Identity Theft
From the financial-chutzpah dept.: Bank of America allegedly refuses to reverse an identity theft victim’s bank charges, claiming that she — wait for it — benefited from the withdrawn (read: stolen) funds: Van Valer said they made her feel responsible for the fraud. Initially, the bank reversed $21,000 of fraudulent charges but it refuses to…
OH: Four indicted in 83-count, seven-county identity fraud scheme
Adam Ferrise reports: Four people are accused of ripping off thousands of dollars from unsuspecting residents of seven Ohio counties through a sophisticated identity theft scheme. Ming Chun Shi, 33, and Dong Houdong, 26, both of New York City, Yu Liu, 35, of Brooklyn, New York and Wen Fei Shi, 33, of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania…
Apple Pay Stung by Low-Tech Fraudsters
Robin Sidel and Daisuke Wakabayashi report: Apple Inc. ’s new mobile-payment system has been hit by a wave of fraudulent transactions using credit-card data stolen in recent breaches of big retailers, including Home Depot Inc. and Target Corp. , people familiar with the matter said. About 80% of the unauthorized purchases have been for big-ticket…