Fraud victims warn and inform others

Two recent fraud victims who live in the Eureka Springs area decided to speak out about their experiences in hopes that others might be spared an experience that can be stressful and time consuming.

Michelle, who asked to be identified by her first name only, lives in a rural area on Hwy. 23 North. She had a neighbor who was stealing mail from people all over western Carroll County.

“He was getting outgoing mail, as well as incoming mail,” Michelle said. “I was trusting, as many people are with our mailboxes in Eureka Springs. He was taking credit card applications out of my mailbox and applying for them. I was home when Target called and asked if I was opening an account. I found out this person had my Social Security number, my driver’s license number, my date of birth and address.”

Michelle hadn’t thought before about her vulnerability of identify theft. The advice she got from Target was to go to www.annualcreditreport.com, a free annual credit report that shows what credit cards are open, and what hard and soft inquires have been made into your credit rating. She learned that a number of other credit cards had been applied for in her name.

“The banking system is so advanced that within an hour after I got the report, Chase Manhattan and City Bank were calling me, and American Express called me twice,” Michelle said. “They were all on the ball about it being fraudulent.”

As advised, she filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, the Carroll County Sheriff and the Arkansas Attorney General. She also checked with the three major credit report bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. She found TransUnion to be the best as once she identified being breached, they put a credit freeze on everything.

She took it a step farther and subscribed to LifeLock, a credit monitoring service.

“I’m a person with excellent credit,” Michelle said. “After 25 hours of hard desk time dealing with all the negativity, I will not go through that again. It was very nerve-wracking. I really like LifeLock because they will call the credit reporting bureaus to tell them that the card was applied for fraudulently. That will bring your credit scores back up, although sometimes it takes 30 days for that to happen. My scores went back up to 830 from 735. I was that impacted.”

She said it could have been worse. If they had been able to open credit cards in her name, then she would have had to go to court and testify that this was theft and she was not liable.

Once Michelle caught on about the problem, she was able to intercept one of the credit cards the thief had applied for. An American Express card had been shipped to her home and UPS left it on an outdoor chair. That card had been approved for an $8,000 cash advance.

“The thief was almost able to intercept the credit card,” Michelle said. “I took the card and put it in the house and left the envelope on the front porch chair with a message inside that said, ‘Good luck. Your ass is grass.’ The thief took the envelope the next day.

The thief went a step farther and had a hold put on her mail. Michelle just happened to see the postmaster and found out about the hold.

“They would have just handed everything over to him without checking his ID, even though he doesn’t look like a Michelle,” she said. “I wanted them to catch him on video picking up the mail, but they don’t have cameras at the post office. This guy is running around all over the area breaking into mail boxes and you don’t have cameras in your post office?”

Michelle took an additional step of protection and got a new curbside mailbox with a slot on top for the postal carrier to deliver mail and a cylinder key for the owner to open it. She said those are recommended because they are hard to drill out.

Michelle posted her experience on social media and heard from many other people who had been targeted by the same thief. A neighbor had a check stolen, washed and then written out for a large amount.

“This guy was really bad,” Michelle said. “He is wanted in four states. He broke into the mailbox outside of Beavertown. He tried to break into the mailbox in front of Harts. He tried to rip the coin changer off the wall in the laundromat and this all was caught on video.”

Another local woman, Anna, dropped off a check at the lockbox in the emergency room entrance to the Eureka Springs Hospital. The check for $50 was dropped off this past September. When it didn’t appear on her bank statement, she called the hospital. They checked the box and couldn’t find the check. She didn’t have a stop payment put on the check, and it wouldn’t have been helpful anyhow because those only last six months. After six months, the thief washed the check, made it out for $350 and cashed it.

“I went to Cornerstone Financial Center and talked with one of their people,” Anna said. “She was very helpful, and they made good on the check so I wasn’t out anything. But they asked me to file a police report and it turns out both they and the police were familiar with this fellow. He had washed the check and passed it at the Berryville branch, so I had to go to Berryville and file a report for that. It was lot of hassle, but thankfully it worked out all right. It made me leery about paying anything with a check unless I drop it in the box at the post office.”

According to the Carroll County Sheriff’s office, Jeremy Martinez-Brooks was arrested and is accused of committing mail theft, check forgery, identity fraud, and theft of at least one vehicle. Police Corporal Aaron Ingle of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department said Martinez-Brooks was the ringleader of the operation.

“And I hope he goes to prison,” Ingle said.