Credit Card Fraud

The Ventura College of Law will present a free forum on credit cards and fraud Aug. 27. "Credit Cards and Identity Theft," to be presented at 6:30 p.m., will review the terms and transaction fees imposed by credit card issuers. Participants will learn how to shop around for the best deals, limit financial loss if cards are lost or stolen, and avoid credit card fraud and other scams. There also will be advice on preventing identity theft and how to correct credit history if victimized.

Ken Robinson didn't buy that satellite dish. Or that diamond ring. And he surely would have remembered taking home a house full of furniture. Someone posing as him made those purchases. And thus began Robinson's long, arduous journey to prove that he was a victim of credit-card fraud. "It's just a never-ending nightmare," he said. His story is becoming increasingly common.

In one of the nation's largest crackdowns on credit card fraud, federal authorities raided homes and businesses throughout Southern California early Thursday, arresting 14 people on charges that they helped bilk financial institutions of as much as $100 million. A task force of 135 Secret Service and FBI agents along with local police in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties carted away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bullion, jewelry, Las Vegas gambling chips and cash.

In one of the nation's largest crackdowns on credit card fraud, federal authorities arrested 16 people early Thursday in Southland raids and shut down two rings accused of playing a major role in bilking $100 million from financial institutions nationwide. A task force of 135 Secret Service and FBI agents, along with local police in Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties, carted away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bullion, jewelry, Las Vegas gambling chips and cash.

Three Moorpark gas station clerks have been arrested on suspicion of stealing credit cards from customers. Ventura County sheriff's investigators said Tuesday the three boys were arrested on suspicion of credit-card fraud after allegedly purchasing $450 in electronic goods from a local department store. Deputies arrested two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old. All three worked at a Chevron gas station in Moorpark.

A Pierce College business major charged with heading a credit card fraud ring that made an estimated $100,000 in illegal purchases was sentenced Thursday to 40 days in County Jail and three years probation. Ali Mojaddam also was ordered to pay $18,222 to a restitution fund. The 19-year-old Reseda resident had pleaded no contest to charges of counterfeiting and forgery.

A Van Nuys man has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey on three felony charges involving a $280,000 credit-card fraud, according to a spokeswoman at a U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey. Larry Grundfeld, 39, also known as Larry Greenfield, was arrested Sept. 19 after the U.S. attorney filed a complaint against him and another man, Bernard D'Andrea, 46, of Toms River, N.J., said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gail Nichols.

Credit-card fraud is one of the fastest growing underworld industries in the country. Some estimates place the loss at more than $200 million a year for MasterCard, Visa and other companies. Criminals manufacture counterfeit plastic cards, steal cards or their identification numbers, even swipe the information on a credit card's magnetic strip. The growth in credit-card fraud has made another industry much more attractive--credit cards that have built-in security devices.

It doesn't exactly rank with the plot of "Night of the Living Dead," but police said Wednesday that dozens of the deceased may have been on illegal shopping and check-cashing sprees in the San Fernando Valley. At least their names were being used on the sprees--until two bounty hunters inadvertently shut down a credit fraud ring. Three men were arrested this week in Reseda after the bounty hunters stumbled onto an "identification mill" while tracking one of the men.