SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Las Vegas residents Ricky Lee Ware, 43, and Kimberly Ann Wallace, 30, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit access device fraud, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.
According to court documents, between July 2020 and January 2021, the defendants conspired to obtain debit cards that allowed them to access unemployment benefits. The unemployment benefits were in the names of people who did not know the defendants. The defendants then used the debit cards to withdraw more than $900,000 in unemployment benefits from ATMs.
The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas M. Fogg is prosecuting the case.
Ware and Wallace are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S….
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.