3 charged in identity theft scam

Lori Glenn

MOULTRIE — Area credit and debit card holders should check their accounts now that police have arrested three people for stealing numbers and using them to purchase prepaid cello phone accounts likely resold on the black market.

More than 100 credit and debit card numbers have been stolen from this area to create these fraudulent accounts, Moultrie Investigator Seth Walters said Monday, but only three victims have been identified so far.

“Just these three cases are the ones that we’re sure of from where they came from, but there’s a bunch of them,” he said.

On June 15, fraud investigator for Alltel Communications Michael Relyea reported to police that multiple prepaid cell phone accounts were fraudulently activated in the Moultrie area with stolen credit card numbers resulting in a $10,000 loss to Alltel. Authorities said Applebee’s restaurant is the source for the stolen credit card numbers.

Two Applebee’s servers, Yvonne Andrea Neal and Truansheay Aundralen Huckaby allegedly supplied Jerome Byron Mitchell, 38, 912 Fourth Ave. S.E., a maintenance employee with a local realty firm with the stolen numbers. Mitchell allegedly used the information to purchase Alltel accounts.

Mitchell now faces three counts of financial identity fraud. Neal, 22, 401 Martin Luther King Dr., Apt. N., was charged with two counts of financial identity fraud. Huckaby, 28, 530 Edmondson Road, faces one count of financial identity fraud.

Neal admitted to stealing eight credit and debit card numbers, but Walters suspects she has allegedly stolen at least 20, he said. Huckaby also admitted to stealing numbers, Walters said.

Victims listed so far are Julieta Smith of St. Louis, Mo.; Randy Sloan of Funston; and Beverly Hamrick of Baconton. Also listed as a victim was Mitchell Monteith of Cordele.

Mitchell allegedly took Monteith’s name, date of birth and Social Security card number to open phone accounts. Monteith reported that his vehicle had been broken into while he was in Colquitt County. He told Walters he never dined at Applebee’s, Walters said.

All Alltel accounts in this case were shut down immediately, he said, and those concerned should check their bank accounts and credit card reports.

“It’s thrown me back, really. I use my debit card all the time and at Applebee’s,” Walters said. “The best thing you can do is to monitor it. Luckily, Alltel is a company that stays on top of things, and they caught it before customers did.”

Persons whose numbers were used to set up Alltel accounts won’t be out of pocket, Walters said. The company will be assume financial liability.

Walters informed Applebee’s and cautioned management to pay better attention to their employees, he said.

Applebee’s Assistant General Manager Jerry Searcy responded that only the last four numbers of credit and debit cards are revealed on reports. The only way he could guess the servers could have taken the numbers is writing them down as they charge the card.

In fact, Searcy had heard that one of the girls might have taken a credit card into the bathroom to allegedly write it down but the customer didn’t question it immediately. The manager urged customers who witness suspicious activity to report it to management immediately. The server should be prompt in returning a credit card and receipt to the customer, he said.

Searcy said Applebee’s employs safeguards to protect customers. For instance, if an excessive tip is placed on a card, that would show up on a server’s paperwork when they’re ready to cash out at the end of their shift.“That’s a red flag where a manager can call a customers back and ask, ‘Did you mean to leave this tip on here?’” he said.

Also, Applebee’s computers won’t allow a customer’s credit card to be charged twice in one day without first verifying with the customer and clearing it by a manager.

Searcy, who has been an employee at the local Applebee’s for over seven years, can think of only one other instance at his restaurant where a credit card number was stolen.

“If we happened to have, God forbid, a customer who has had his card abused while in our restaurant ... we will credit that amount back to their account. We definitely want to make sure the public knows that Applebee’s as a company will do everything we can to make sure that customer is reimbursed,” Searcy said.

This case is unusual for Applebee’s but not for Moultrie.

Mitchell had been convicted on similar fraud offenses in 2004, Walters said, and his sentence was probated.

All the accounts Mitchell allegedly set up were prepaid accounts which aren’t usually monitored well, the investigator said.

“You can use a fictitious name as long as you use a valid credit card, they’ll set up prepaid account for you,” he said.

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