ATLANTA – Is identity theft so easy to pull off that inmates can do it from inside prison? Maybe so. An inmate in a county jail in Atlanta has been charged with running an identity theft ring while in the facility. Stanley Sinkfield, who was already in Douglas County Jail for driving a stolen vehicle, was arrested along with four of his accomplices recently. They'll face a variety of charges including identity theft, and racketeering. Sinkfield is accused of stealing people's credit card information by calling a metro Atlanta restaurant and posing as a credit card representative, said John Smith, administrator for the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. He used the other people's credit card information to buy and resell items such as TVs and boots. Then, through his accomplices, Sinkfield offered to sell merchandise or pay people's utility bills at a discount, Smith said. He put those charges on the stolen credit card numbers and kept his customers' money. "He's got some ingenuity. Either he was a little bit or a lot cocky," Smith said. "There was a little bit of both there." Police used tape-recorded phone calls Sinkfield made from the jail to gather enough evidence to arrest him. "They're warned that their phone calls were being recorded, and then they go ahead and do things over the telephone," Smith said.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.