MARTINSBURG, W.Va. – Inspectors say it was an easy con job involving a bank employee and an accomplice in West Virginia. In the end, they stole tens of thousands of dollars.
"She used her position as a supervisor to fraudulently access customer credit card accounts," said U.S. Postal Inspector Ryan Amstone.
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Amstone says Carrie Przywarty was a bank employee with Citibank and had access to peoples personal information. She was involved with Chaldin Point du Jour. The couple manipulated the system to steal from customers.
"She would write down the account numbers, names and other identifying information about the account and gave the information to Mr. du Jour whom she was having a romantic relationship with," explained Amstone.
The duo targeted bank customers with a specific profile.
"Credit cards with high limits so her accomplices could basically get as much on each card at one time and then discard the credit card," he added.
Investigators say du Jour would take the information and immediately start buying goods like gift cards, merchandise, stamps, computers, perfume, cologne, all with the compromised account information. He also bought 80 rolls of stamps worth $3,500 and admitted he was going to sell them half-price to consumers.
"Postal service will never sell stamps at half price. So if anyone offers you a deal that is too good to be true it probably is," warned Amstone.
Postal inspectors got involved after the bank started seeing similar customer complaints. In all, 30 accounts were compromised with $24,000 in losses. Both suspects pleaded guilty. Przywarty received four years probation and her accomplice du Jour was sentenced to 10 months behind bars and ordered to pay restitution to the bank.
Amstone says to help protect themselves, customers need to reconcile their monthly credit card and bank statements as soon as the bill arrives in the mai or check them weekly online if they have access to online banking.
You should also check your credit report for fraudulent activity. Everyone is entitled to one free report a year from each of the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. The Better Business Bureau of Northeast Florida recommends the website AnnualCreditReport.com because it has easy step-by-step instructions and links to all three bureaus.