It might not work the next time either.
In September 2007 Clayton Tracy Stewart was arrested by the USPIS and charged with obtaining credit cards using approximately 100 different profiles including aliases and addresses. Stewart subsequently opened merchant accounts in a variety of names and ran fraudulent transactions through these accounts using the fraudulent credit cards.
During a search, letters were found from STEWART’S brother, Johnny Stewart, on how to commit different types of fraud without being detected by law enforcement. Johnny Stewart instructs STEWART on how to conduct bank transactions on the home computer so he does not need to go to the bank and be detected.
Also a book entitled “How to be Invisible” was found on the dining room table. In the book, the author describes methods to hide ) your residential address, set up “Ghost addresses,” and obtain mail drops or Post Office boxes away from your true residence. There are chapters in the book that guide the reader on how to make their trash untraceable and on hiding the ownership of vehicles and real estate. The book instructs the reader on how to take their life savings and disappear without a trace.
Stewart plead guilty and was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and released in September 2010.
By January 2011 Stewart and his letter writing brother, Johnny, had already begun their next and identical enterprise and were duly arrested and convicted.
Clayton has now been sentenced to 102 months and Johnny to 144 months so merchant underwriters won’t be bothered by them for a few years.
ARMS’ due diligence process can help acquirers keep crooks out of the portfolio.