15 arrested in bust of Valley fraud ring

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - A months-long investigation nabbed more a dozen people believed to be part of an international ring of credit card fraud operated in the Valley.

Fifteen people were rounded up and arrested during the past two days.

Their goal was to get personal and credit card information from unsuspecting victims and take as much money as possible, said Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.

The investigation started earlier this year in February with an arrest of people with stolen credit cards, said Scottsdale Police Department Lt. Jamie Buckler.

But a follow up showed those credit cards were linked to telemarketing centers, who Buckler said were defrauding people by promising deals they could never deliver.

He described it as a complex fraud scheme.

“These people were very convincing in getting information from the victims over the phone that would give them their credit card numbers and other personal information,” Buckler said.

These are types of crimes are no longer considered low risk, said Scottsdale Police Assistant Chief Sean Duggan.

Investigators provided audio recordings an undercover detective had with one of the suspects to show how much disregard the suspects had for victims.

“Any moron that believes that they can get rich and make [expletive] $100,000 a year for paying $29.99 that’s who is going to be sign up for our program,” said Adam Arnold, one of the suspects. “And honestly, do I feel like we’re scamming them, no because if you’re [expletive] stupid enough to [inaudible] I have no sympathy for mankind anymore.”

During a news conference, investigators showed two bags of victims’ personal information taken from the suspects and said they had a total of 50 in their possession as a way to show how much confidential information the suspects allegedly stole.

Most of the victims were from out of state, sometimes out of the country like the Middle East, Australia, Singapore and Korea, which made it hard for victims to track down the suspects.

“They would read from a script, ask for your money, sell you some kind of investment. You would give them your credit information; they would make a swipe of your credit card,” Buckler said.

Obviously the victims would get nothing in return, he added. If you called back, they’d try to convince you to buy a better service. If you refused, they would wipe out your credit card.

“In their terms they call blowing out the credit card. They would blow out your credit card to the max and that way whatever you had left on the card would be gone,” Buckler said.

The card information was then handed off to street level criminals who would try and get more cash from the card, he said.

Businesses were also affected.

Will Swaim, director of operations at CardFlex, said his California-based company lost $1.3 million.

His company handles credit card transactions for all types of companies and deals with customer charge disputes.

“Each one of these up sales could cost thousands of dollars, so you could have people spending anywhere from a few hundred dollars. We’ve seen people up to $85,000,” Swaim said.

“This is a really unusual success,” Swaim said of the arrests. “This kind of thing goes on all over the country.”

He reminded people all these successful police operations can’t take the place of vigilance on the part of the consumer.

“Credit card theft is huge. It’s disastrous. It destroys not just your finances, but sometimes people’s families,” he said.

All suspects but one are in custody, Montgomery said.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” he said. "If it’s a legitimate business, ask them to send you info over the mail,” he added.

The sting took place over a five-day period.

Ten of millions of dollars might have been swindled, investigators said.

If you think you’re a victim of an electronic crime go to the Arizona Electronic Crimes Task Force website www.ectf.usss.gov . Complete the victim complaint form under the Phoenix tab.

Defendants named in the indictments include:

Matthew Nicholas Farmer – DOB: 09/01/1979

Erica Renee Rahn – DOB: 05/12/1979

Justin Sloane Rahn – DOB: 02/22/1978

Jason Woolridge – DOB: 05/04/1970

Ryan Michael Angeles – DOB: 01/29/1982

Adam Joseph Arnold – DOB: 08/22/1984

John Jay Cargal – DOB: 10/09/1968

Margaret Baylor – DOB: 02/22/1981

Lee E. Chotin – DOB: 08/18/1967

Barbara Tarazon Brown – DOB: 05/06/1961

Phillip Richard Brown – DOB: 06/14/1960

Kevin Hewitt – DOB: 09/13/1979

Stephen Thomas Huth – DOB: 08/25/1967

Brittany Constance Van Huizen – DOB: 02/15/1984

Lucas Choate – DOB: 04/15/1973