The Sealy News in Texas has recently reported that after investigating hundreds of identity theft incidents in the Houston area, 38 people have been arrested in connection with these crimes. These arrests come after a year of investigation by the Austin County Sheriff’s office.

The thieves in these cases took out payday loans with the information that was stolen via internet and opened bank accounts around the Houston area to deposit the money. Some victims had several loans started in their name.

One female suspect in the case is reported to have paid individuals to open bank accounts for her and then paid them once the stolen money was deposited. Other suspects took information from their workplace and gave it to the operation ring leader, names as Wesley Dixon. The companies where these individuals were employed were: Kelsey-Seybold Clinic and HCA-Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.

Although the loans that were applied for in this operation were relatively small, this was a way for the leader of this operation to make his living. He had personal information provided to him and used it to open accounts for the funds to be deposited to. Once funds were deposited, they could be withdrawn and the account left empty.

The operation was discovered once the agreement for loan repayment was not honored and the loan companies could not withdraw the repayments from the bank accounts used. This led to notification to the victims of this operation, who know nothing of the original loan.

Being aware of and familiar with everything on your credit report is one way to find out whether your personal information has been fraudulently used. Identity theft protection services will be of help too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.