Tyche's rant on theft!

[Tyche]

Ok, so I understand theft to a degree. You have 5 kids at home because you're a whore and you can't feed your kids off welfare checks. Fine! I get that. But when you decide to steal upwards to $20,000 from people running a non-profit organization, and spend thousands of dollars at...radioshack...you've crossed the line.

This morning my fiancee calls me at work and tells me she cannot find her bank card. I go online to look for a lost/stolen card number when I notice a fat -$1500 account balance (after she had just deposited a check). Two radioshack transactions totaling about $2000. OK, we go through the cycle. We call the bank and cancel the card. Next step, call local police. Done and done. Next step call the Indiana State Police as that's the state the cards were used in (we live in KY and she works in Indiana). We take care of all this, go to the bank and fill out all the appropriate paperwork, and I calm my fiancee down and send her back to work. This is where we discovered that we have just started to scratch the surface.

She get to work, she checks her purse, and also gone is our Banking credit card, Old Navy Credit Card, and my Best Buy card. Thankfully I'm smart enough to keep the best buy card maxed out . I cancelled the other two before the damage hit. Finished? Oh no, there's more. Lot's more. The president of the company (a catholic nun mind you) had TEN THOUSAND dollars racked up on her card, another girl had $4000 hit on her card, and another employee had an undisclosed amount of money hit on her card. State and local police are now n the case and they already have security footage of the suspect. Thank god they didn't get into our joint account and didn't make out with a whole lot from our account. If they'd of gotten into our joint account, I'd probably be delaying our wedding. I am, however, so fucking geeked for a court case. I'm praying for someone with priors that will inevitably lead to prison time. PLEASE!

So a hearty fuck you goes out to anyone who has ruined the lives of people you don't know.

[sephir]

MY dad had his credit card number stolen a few years back and the dude racked up some $10,000 in fees. Luckily Visa caught on to what was going on and caught the guy within 24 hours. Aparently also at Radioshack some guy was copying the credit card numbers from customers then selling them.

[Orph]

So was the thief a coworker of your fiance?

[Obev]

I had my debit card cloned last month. Some Italian motherfucker ranked up OVER ONE THOUSA~ND Euros worth of transactions around Milan before I cancelled the card and told my bank "wut, I've not been to Italy for years."

Motherfuckers.

[Tyche]

They run a non-profit catholic daycare. From what I understand, it's the largest child care facility in the state. Larger than some public schools. They are thinking it's a parent of a child (who used to work at the daycare, was fired, but who's child still attends). They know of 3 different locations thus far where cards where used. They are going to compare tapes and see if they possibly paid someone to enter the store and buy goods. They bought close to 50 Visa Gift Cards worth $100 a pop from a couple of CVS pharmacies.

Edit: over 20 Visa cards @ $100 a pop from one CVS pharmacy store, yet the cashier wasn't suspicious? They used THREE different bank/credit cards for THREE different transactions at the SAME radioshack in a span of 11 minutes. Can we arrest cashiers for sheer fucking stupidity?

[Royal]

Hope you get the jackass who did that. Sue his ass dry of all the money hes got.

[Raineer]

But when you decide to steal upwards to $20,000 from people running a non-profit organization, and spend thousands of dollars at...radioshack...you've crossed the line.

They will be easy to catch, you can't buy a fucking AA battery at RadioShack without giving them your name and address for the mailing list.

I kid, sorry for all that shit.... Are all the banks/cards cooperating? AMEX is awesome about that stuff, I am always curious to see what companies are easy to work with during times like this.

[guartz]

what did they buy?

might wanna check local ebay listings.

[blister1]

They run a non-profit catholic daycare. From what I understand, it's the largest child care facility in the state. Larger than some public schools. They are thinking it's a parent of a child (who used to work at the daycare, was fired, but who's child still attends). They know of 3 different locations thus far where cards where used. They are going to compare tapes and see if they possibly paid someone to enter the store and buy goods. They bought close to 50 Visa Gift Cards worth $100 a pop from a couple of CVS pharmacies.

Edit: over 20 Visa cards @ $100 a pop from one CVS pharmacy store, yet the cashier wasn't suspicious? They used THREE different bank/credit cards for THREE different transactions at the SAME radioshack in a span of 11 minutes. Can we arrest cashiers for sheer fucking stupidity?

Chances are they get the boot. I've had a ton of customers walk into my store, pluck expensive shit off the shelves, walk up to the register and flash me their card and say "No ID." I take the bus everyday to class and wind up checking my pockets every 5 minutes just in case I dropped my wallet.

I kid, sorry for all that shit.... Are all the banks/cards cooperating? AMEX is awesome about that stuff, I am always curious to see what companies are easy to work with during times like this.

seconded

[Zoot]

Ah, retail. I always hated it when people would complain when I asked to see their driver's license when using credit cards. But once I actually had a lady who had been a victim of credit card fraud thank me for it, and say that it was the first store on the strip she'd been asked to do so for.

She had been on a business trip at a hotel in another town and the day when she came back, she got a call from her credit card company reporting that there had been some strange transactions on her card. She checked her card, but it was in her purse. She figured someone must have gotten her number somehow.

The person who did it ended up being a maid at the hotel, and the way they caught her was really unique. The store owner of a Bed Bad and Beyond noticed that a woman came into the store with her boyfriend often, looking for hours making a list but didn't buy anything. A few days later, she would come back and buy lots of high priced items in a very short period of time. She approached the man who was with her while she was off looking at an item, and said "Your friend is one of our best customers! Funny, I can never remember her name." Of course the name he gave her was different from the name on the credit card. The woman informed the police of her suspicions.

Then some private eye research was done. The woman targeted customers who stayed for more than one day, stole the credit card while they were out, and replaced the card before they checked out. Pretty weird stuff.

[Rafike]

That really fucking sucks and whoever did it has to be a pretty fucked up person. This kind of shit happened to my parents once. Luckily, it they weren't hit very hard at all before they managed to stop it. Good luck with everything.

[BaneTheBrawler]

It's amazing how smart people can be when they're being fucking stupid.

[Therin]

It's amazing how stupid people can be when they're trying to be fucking smart.

Fixed.

Only a really really dumb motherfucker would go about this theft in the way that Tyche is describing.

[Raineer]

It's amazing how stupid people can be when they're trying to be fucking smart.

Fixed.

Only a really really dumb motherfucker would go about this theft in the way that Tyche is describing.

The best criminals are certainly well above average intelligence, and the ones described in this thread certainly do not fit that mold.

[Kiro]

Just a person who watched too much CSI.

[fantasticdan]

Ok, so I understand theft to a degree. You have 5 kids at home because you're a whore and you can't feed your kids off welfare checks. Fine! I get that. But when you decide to steal upwards to $20,000 from people running a non-profit organization, and spend thousands of dollars at...radioshack...you've crossed the line.

They were most likely trying to launder the money by reselling whatever electronics they bought.

[Norelco]

Tyche, if this puts your mind at ease, you probably won't be responsible for any of those credit card charges.

My credit card number was stolen (not the actual card) and they racked up about $1000 worth of charges, none of which I had to pay.

Legally, in the US, if you are a victim of credit card fraud you are only responsible for up to $50 per card.

My main concern, if I was you or your fiance, is to check your credit score to make sure that no new cards were opened using your identities (just in case she had her SS card taken too).

The fraud division of each card company will be in contact with you and they will run an investigation to determine the fraudulent charges.

[jmc]

Don't need any prior convictions. Any theft over $250 is considered a felony. So.... she used multiple cards, from multiple users. Lets just be light, and say the suspect faces 5 counts of grand larceny. The suspect would face a year for each charge in federal prison so thats a easy 5 years........

Now she/he stole a few grand, from a non-profit organization........ if convicted thats a mandatory 2 year sentence. From the sounds of what he/she has done..... i'm gonna assume if convicted of everything, the perp will more than likely get at least 10 years min. (Ya seems kind of overboard, but the government is starting to crack down on identity theft, and will use anyone of a example to deter people from trying it)



If anything.... most states have a FBI field office, I would give them a call inform them of the situation, and see if they want to assist.

[Tyche]

A really interesting story about the banking process. My fiancee called me while I was working. I was actually at another company doing some MODAP consultations, so I couldn't cancel and come to the bank with her. I called my mom (what else does one do when travesty strikes other than call their mom). My mom went with Tasha to the bank; I finished up, and shot to the bank. I walked into the Branch Manager's office as they were completing necessary paperwork, and I be damned if it wasn't an old high school friend (it was a girl, but not a girlfriend). The bank is Fifth-Third. We chatted for a bit and we managed to get all of our money that was tied up in the account before the bleeding started. We opened a new account and transferred the funds there. So, as of today, we haven't lost any money, however, the closed account will remain at the negative balance from the fraudulent transactions. It'll stay this way til we get all the police reports sent in to the higher-ups at the bank investigating the fraud. Ironically, tash kept her social security card in her purse, but it wasn't taken. I think this was more of a swoop in and spend asap style of theft. I doubt it was calculated identity theft, the person didn't seem patient at all. They left the daycare center and had already spent several thousand dollars at a CVS down the road within about 2 hours of the earliest possible time of theft. They then drove about 2-3 hours towards Louisville Kentucky and hit another CVS pharmacy and a Radioshack.

[Mizango]

Man Ty that sucks dude sorry to hear that. Those cashiers are fucking stupid indeed lol.