HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A Cypress-area gym owner turned himself in on Wednesday after a client accused him of overcharging her thousands of dollars.
Teodoso Garza, 58, owns Max Speed and Strength, a youth-focused gym in northwest Harris County. According to court documents, a credit card obtained during the membership process was fraudulently charged $11,000.
Mom Rachael Dicons said when she heard a fellow parent ask Garza when duplicate credit card charges would be resolved, her ears perked up.
“When I came home that night, I checked my card and my heart sank to see that in the last week, I think there were five charges for a thousand dollars each,” Dicons said.
Dicons said she enrolled her two kids at the gym in November of last year, and agreed to pay $1,100 per kid for a yearly membership. But since then, Dicons said she and her bank have discovered 11 unauthorized charges…
Identity theft is the “foundational” fraud upon which many other crimes are built. It involves the unauthorized acquisition and use of a person’s personal identifying information (PII), such as an ID number, Social Security number, or passport details.
- How it works: Fraudsters obtain PII through data breaches, mail theft, or “social engineering” (tricking people into revealing details). Once they have this data, they can open new bank accounts, apply for credit cards or loans, and even receive medical treatment under your name.
- Synthetic Identity Fraud: A sophisticated variation where criminals combine real and fabricated information to create a completely new, “synthetic” person. This is particularly difficult to detect because there is no single victim to report the suspicious activity initially.