Sworn Statements

So I went over to the Sheriff’s office yesterday to file a report regarding my CC fraud.  I was sitting in the lobby for quite awhile waiting to talk to someone.  While I was there some balding, chubby, unhappy looking guy came into the waiting area as well.  He walked over and grabbed a magazine, walked back to a set of chairs on another wall and sat down.  He sat the magazine on the chair next to him and never looked at it.  About 15 minutes later I was surprised when I saw a deputy come in, stand him up, frisk him and then cuff him.  Evidently he was turning himself in for something.

I waited a good 40 minutes and was just about to leave.  I told the deputy at the window that I had to get back to work.  He called back and found out that they were actually ready for me now so I turned around and headed back in.  I was introduced to Deputy Matthews.  I could tell right away that the deputy had some sort of physical problems.  His movements were very slow and deliberate and his speech was had a lot of gurgling in it.  So before I got into my story he asked for my driver’s license first.  As he looked it over he also seemed to be evaluating me, perhaps to see if I seemed legit or not.  So finally he asked me what happened.  I get into the story a bit and he stops me in the middle of it and says , “ok so someone is trying to commit identity theft”  I told him how I had talked to someone at the office on Friday and they said I needed a CC statement with the fraudulent charges on it.  I told the deputy I didn’t have such a statement because they were immediately removed from my account.   He said that I should have requested a listing of the charges, I told him I didn’t know I could/should do that.  So we called up my CC company and after I answered the security questions and we got through to a CSR, I gave the phone to the deputy.  He explained the situation and what he was looking for.   The CSR said he could fax an official list to the deputy but he verbally gave him a list of the charges.

Deputy Matthews hung up.  He told me how internet based crime like this is extremely rampant nowadays.  He said in fact it is a bigger deal than drugs at this point. So I then continued on with my story trying to accurately recant the sequence of events (something I am normally piss poor at)  I told the deputy that I am a network admin so I had a solid knowledge of how to track down information on people trying to hide out on the net.  I showed him the emails from the bogus gmail account, including the one that had the ip address of the person that signed up.  I also brought my profile information for the two supplement companies that had my home address, work phone and work email.  (earlier I went through all my old statements and these were the ONLY two that had this info)  I told him how the IP address traced back to a location in Madison Wisconsin and how coincidentally one of the supplement companies was also based in Wisconsin.  He said that it seems pretty sure that there is a tie in between the two facts which is what I immediately suspected as well.  I was pleased that all of the legwork I did actually was useful and he in fact kept all the documentation I brought.  He said I had to fill out a sworn statement that outlined everything I told him.  I received some blank ones to take with me and then I could get them notarized at my office.  At the end of our meeting the deputy decided to try out some very dry jokes on me.  I did my best to act like they were funny.  I thanked him for his time and I was back to work.

Writing out the sworn statement was a pain in the ass.  I haven’t done this much writing by hand since High School.  I filled nearly four pages with my story.  During the afternoon there were actually a few more chapters added.  I have been periodically checking the bogus gmail account the guy made to make sure nothing else pops in there.  I couldn’t believe what I saw.  In the bogus email account was ANOTHER message congratulating me on creating ANOTHER bogus Gmail account, this time [email protected].  This f’in idiot used the first bogus gmail account as the secondary email address for the second bogus gmail account.

I immediately tried the same trick I did on the first one, resetting the password so I can get access to it.  Unfortunately this time the culprit added a security question I did not know the answer to so I couldn’t initiate the reset chain.  I was flabbergasted that this moron was still trying, the card is dead, there should not be anything else he can do with it.  I was quite pissed with the Gmail system.  How can they allow you to use a Gmail email address as a secondary email address for ANOTHER gmail account, that just seems stupid as hell.  I muddled through screen after screen of bullshit trying to find a way to contact Gmail about the bullshit going on.  After about 15 minutes I finally got to a form that I could fill out and submit. It immediately generated a canned reply that didn’t apply in the least to my situation.  I am sure nothing will come of my request.

The other interesting thing happened when I decided to once again call the company in Wisconsin.  I had called them Friday and they told me they had no security problems at all.  So I call back and ask to talk to a manager.  I get a woman named Nellie.  I explain how someone committed CC fraud against me and how there are several things that are pointing towards it being associated with the transactions with their business.  I again asked if they had any CC problems recently.  This time I got another story.  Back in the late April, early May time frame they did have a few customers that had fraudulent activity occur on their cards. It just so happens that the two orders I placed with them occurred in April and May, imagine that. Since that time she said they totally redid their security system.  Well that is all well and good, except for the people that are getting f’d.  I asked her if the company sent out a notice to their customers informing them of the security issue?  She said no since it was isolated to only a handful of people.  Of course the real reason they didn’t tell people is because in one fell swoop they would instantly lose all of their existing customer base.  Who wants to deal with a company that has security problems when there are dozens of others just like them to buy from.  The lady was nice and willing to provide any information she had if it is needed during the investigation.  She related multiple stories about the CC abuse they see running their internet store.

So anyway I added this additional information to my sworn statement, got it notarized and dropped it back off at the Sheriff’s department after work.  Who knows what will happen but I can only hope there is a big boulder of hurt rolling towards the little worm hiding in the dark corners of the internet.  How sweet it would be to be there as police knock on his door.