FRESNO, Calif. — Alena Nicole George, 43, of Fresno, pleaded guilty today to access device fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, from February through April 2019, George used a credit card that was fraudulently opened in the identity of a victim with a name similar to her own name to make $100,000 in purchases at national retailers and cash advances at a national bank.
This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vincente Tennerelli and Joseph Barton are prosecuting the case.
George is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on Jan. 21, 2022. George faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/fresno-woman-pleads-guilty-committing-100000-credit-card-fraud
How can consumers protect against this type of identity theft?
1. Freeze your credit file. It’s free. This process blocks identity thieves and others from looking at private details in your consumer credit history. You unfreeze when you are applying for new credit, and you can do it for just a window of time so you don’t have to remember to refreeze it later.
2. Pull your credit report annually. By law, each of the three major credit reporting bureaus must provide a free copy of your credit report each year — but only if you request it via the government-mandated site annualcreditreport.com. TIP: If you pull only one, then you can pull a different one in 4 months so you can have more frequent view into your credit situation.
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