Teen
Identity Theft Hearing Held
A preliminary hearing got underway late Monday morning for a 15-year-old boy charged with identity theft. The teen suspect did not appear in court as his public defender argued that his appearance before the court should be waived by the judge. The youth is being held at a juvenile detention center in DeKalb county. His mother asked that her son be kept in the juvenile facility because she is not able to supervise him at all times. The teen faces another hearing Oct. 29 in a separate incident. According to police, the teen scammed dozens of credit card and bank customers out of tens of thousands of dollars. One of the victims, Al Finger, told 11Alive News that he noticed that someone had withdrawn $7,000 from his checking account. Finger complained to the bank that he had not written any checks. "They said, 'No, that was a bank card.' I said, 'I don't even own a bank card from your bank.' They said, 'Yes, you do, we mailed you one the other day,'" he said. Police said the ATM card was sent to an address in northwest Atlanta. The address was being used by the teen who, according to authorities, was building a financial empire by stealing identities, credit card accounts and bank accounts by posing as a private investigator. "When you get an investigative service like that, then it gives you where you could go online to Web sites and pull up people's social security numbers," said Debbie Baker, an investigator with the Hapeville police department. Police said the teen set up a fake business at his grandmother's home, located at the address in northwest Atlanta, and had his victims' accounts switched to that address. The 15-year-old was even able to buy a used police car with $5,000 stolen from someone's credit card account and was planning to pose as a detective, officials said. Hapeville police said they first caught the teen buying surplus police cars on eBay using fraudulent credit cards two years ago when he was 13 years old. "This is a highly intelligent child," Baker said. "He did tell us that when he was 13, that if the courts would have been harder on him, he wouldn't be where he was today." Courtesy of: http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=51827 |