credit repair business cleaned up client's credit with fake police reports of identity theft
The operator of a North Carolina credit repair business has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for creating fake police reports to clean up his clients’ bad credit and enlisting his family to help run a $3.4 million credit card fraud scheme at Lowe’s
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False police reports
The probe into Griffin began in 2019 when authorities charged him with filing false police reports with credit rating agencies stating that his clients — some of whom had paid $3,000 for his credit repair services — had been the victims of identity theft. The ruse often worked and Griffin’s clients were unaware of what he had done, according to court documents.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/like-a-heavy-anchor-he-s-taken-his-entire-family-down-operator-of-credit-repair-business-and-7-relatives-sentenced-in-3-4-million-identity-fraud-case/ar-AARF5h4
After he had been charged, the case expanded after investigators determined that Griffin had engaged in something called synthetic identity theft, where a stolen Social Security number is paired often with a fake name, thereby creating a false identity.
Prosecutors say Griffin at some point used such a false ID to obtain an auto loan to purchase a 2018 Hyundai Genesis for $73,000.
The scam then expanded into credit card fraud. Griffin was accused of enlisting his family members to help apply for dozens of Lowe’s credit cards issued by Synchrony Bank, using synthetic identities, prosecutors said.
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Investigators say Griffin would then max out the accounts to purchase prepaid cash cards and then walk away from the credit card. Prosecutors say Griffin also scammed other financial institutions through a similar ruse.
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