Car Salesman accused of stealing 33 identities

Shawn Lee McDonald was charged with grand theft and fraudulent use of personal information according to Crestview, Florida police and as reported in the Northwest Florida Daily News. He reportedly initiated 73 credit applications and received 20 credit cards. Link to source article:



McDonald sold his dealership's customer, Jim Dohse a Chevrolet HHR back in March. Allegedly while completing the transaction, McDonald stole Dohse’s personal information and started to make credit applications using his identity. When he was applying for credit, McDonald used the victim’s name and then requested a second card be issued where he was an authorized user.

What tripped up this ID theft scam quickly was that Dohse had invested in LifeLock
,a credit monitoring service that notified him every time someone applied for credit in his name. It was not long after the car purchase that a wave of credit applications were made in his name. This, of course, prompted him to contact the local police.

So far, McDonald is being accused of stealing 33 identities of dealership customers of Hub City Ford from which he made at least 73 credit applications, netting him 20 fraudulent credit cards. The police have identified charges to those accounts totaling nearly $8,000 from Overstock.com, almost $7,000 at a Marriott in Fairfield, California (must have been some vacation!) and even nearly $3,000 toward restitution at the Mobile County, Alabama district attorney’s office. Can anyone spell “background check?”

McDonald is also listed as President of a company called Premier Brokers, Inc. and courtesy checks drawn on some of the fraudulently acquired credit card accounts totaling $7,000 were also issued. We can only guess the nature of this company’s business activity, but it is interesting to note that McDonald even used the fraudulently acquired credit cards to order business cards for the venture..

LifeLock Identity Theft Prevention is credited with uncovering the ongoing and extensive scam.

The Crestview Police are asking anyone who thinks they might be another victim of identity theft in this case to come forward by calling 682-4157.

Throw the book at him.
AFI

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