-
May 12, 2008 11:05 pm US/Central
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Police: Identity Thief Framed Victims For Crimes
COON RAPIDS, Minn. (WCCO) ―
A different kind of identity theft has more than a dozen victims being treated like suspects. Police say a Minnesota woman had an intricate scheme that started by stealing mail.
For victim Stephanie O'Brien of Anoka County it started when her mail was stolen. Soon after her bank account showed unusual activity and checks started bouncing.
Ruth Samuelson of Coon Rapids is accused of stealing O'Brien's identity and forging a driver's license with her picture and O'Brien's name. That is common practice by identity thieves made it easy to cash O'Brien's checks.
But Samuelson then went a step further to throw police off her track. Police said Samuelson stole checks from at least 10 people. She then used a chemical solution to wash off some of the information and replace it with her
victim's names.
O'Brien's name ended up on a stolen check from another victim, which made it look like O'Brien was the one who stole someone else's identity. So when Samuelson used the check at a casino and a grocery store which made it look like O'Brien was the criminal.
O'Brien even received a letter from Wisconsin authorities saying she is wanted for passing a stolen check.
"Nobody believes that I didn't do this. The way that she's done this appears as though that I am attempting to blame someone else for my own actions," said O'Brien.
Part of O'Brien's problem is that her case involves Wisconsin authorities, who might not be as understanding about the case. In other cases involving this same suspect, there hasn't been the same problem with the victims.
In a Ramsey County case, Target's fraud division very quickly realized who was the actual suspect and who was the victim of identity theft.
Samuelson has been charged in Anoka, Washington and Ramsey Counties with check forgery and fraud.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)