Identity Thief Thursday: Brother Spends $3.2 Million In 3 Months

May 15, 2008

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If there is some sort of world record for identity theft speed, James Hartman has to be up near the top. In 3 months, he spent $3.2 million on vehicles and real estate. More incredibly, he did this with a photocopy of his brother’s drivers license and Social Security card. A photocopy!

If there is any case that demonstrates why identity theft is such a problem nowadays, this is it.

Spending Spree

How do you rack up $3.2 million? Lets count:

In June of 2006, James Hartman bought five vehicles from Christopher’s Dodge World.

On June 5, he bought a pickup truck for $48,000.

On June 10, he bought another pickup truck for $49,000.

On June 14, Hartman bought two Dodge Durangos for $77,000.

And on June 24, he bought a Dodge Viper for $94,000.

In his May, June and July 2006 spending spree, Hartman signed agreements to buy five vehicles, two ATVs, a toyhauler, two houses and mountain property, all totalling $3.2 million.

Brotherly Love

The most entertaining part of this story is the he-said he-said of the two brothers. In one corner we have the convicted identity thief:

“Did I go overboard in buying a few vehicles. Probably did,” Hartman told 9Wants to Know from the Jefferson County Jail. “But it wasn’t identity theft. My brother approved of all of it. I didn’t have the credit. He did. So we used his driver’s license and Social Security number to make the purchases.”

Now, I love my brother, but if he comes to me and asks for my credit to rack up $3 mil, it’ll be an unpleasant conversation in the Duncan house. Let’s see what the victim has to say:

James’ brother, Ed says he didn’t know about any of the purchases until he got a call from Jessicca McKeown of Xtreme Performance Center in Longmont.

Ed calls his brother a “thief, crook and slime ball.”

Whatever the truth, James ended up pleading guilty and was sentenced to 8 years in jail.

Be Smart

Aside from the family issues, its crazy that he was able to do all of this with only a photocopy of the drivers license and SSN. Doesn’t anybody check these things?

Finally someone did. Hartman tried to buy $20K worth of ATVs from a store and they would not accept the copy. They got suspicious and contacted both the brother and Weld County Sheriff’s Department.

Scott Storey, the District Attorney, sums it up best:

“If part of their credit application process is to verify identity through a driver’s license and they have an out-of-state photocopy of a driver’s license, that’s probably not the wisest thing to do and they’re not doing their due diligence,” said Storey.

That’s crazy talk!

Source: 9News via The Consumerist

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Posted in Cases, Family Identity Theft, ID Thief Thursday, Identity Theft