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One way to avoid credit card fraud
By Adam | October 18, 2006
How to avoid credit card fraud
There is something to be said for taking matters into your own hands.
A Fontana woman realized she had become the victim of identity theft when her bank statement showed that she had paid for a meal at the Phelan restaurant Casa Ortega on Highway 138.
The woman drove to the restaurant and asked employees who had used her card, and they were able to identify a couple that had dined there a week earlier.
The woman told the clerks the couple did not have permission to use her card, and she left to file a police report.
The same couple returned to the restaurant that evening, and the clerks contacted authorities.
Deputy John Hayes arrived about 9:20 p.m.
Thursday and identified the two people as Christopher Hoke, 36, of Hesperia and Tammi Fosberg, 34, of Phelan.
Subsequent investigation showed the vehicle they arrived in, a 2003 silver Nissan truck, was reported stolen from Victorville two weeks earlier.
“Inside the stolen vehicle we found (Fosberg’s) purse that contained several receipts with full credit card numbers and signatures on them,” said Sgt.
Lon Jacobs of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Victor Valley station.
“There were approximately 20 receipts, and it looks like an auto repair shop in Riverside, which has since gone out of business, possibly suffered a burglary and their merchant copies of credit card slips were stolen.
Maybe they were burglarized or maybe they just threw out their receipts.
The victim’s credit card receipt was among those recovered in the stolen vehicle.
Two rifles were also found in a later search of the truck, Jacobs said.
Fosberg and Hoke were arrested on suspicion of fraudulent use of a credit card, grand theft auto and burglary, for entering the restaurant with the intent to defraud it.
Hoke also was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, for the two recovered rifles.
Both were booked into the Victor Valley Jail where Fosberg’s bail amount was set at $10,000 and Hoke’s was set at $350,000.
-Adam
Woman’s trip to Phelan uncovers credit card fraud (Daily Press)
PHELAN — There is something to be said for taking matters into your own hands. A Fontana woman realized she had become the victim of identity theft when her bank statement showed that she had paid for a meal at the Phelan restaurant Casa Ortega on Highway 138.
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Topics: Credit Cards, Identity Theft, Personal Finance |