Richard Overton is 112-years-old, making him America’s oldest

living man and the third-oldest living man in the world. He is a

World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Army. Overton saw
tours of duty in Pearl Harbor, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima, and was
honored by former President Barack Obama for his service. He
lives in the same East Austin, TX home that he built 72 years ago,
and requires round-the-clock home care. Richard’s cousin,
Volma, discovered the theft when he went to make a deposit into
Overton’s checking account. After looking at the balance, the
amount only reflected what he had just deposited, signaling that a
“significant amount” of money was missing. He then discovered
that someone had been using the account for months to purchase
savings bonds with Treasury Direct. Further investigation
revealed that an identity thief got their hands on Overton’s SSN,
and used it to open a fake bank account. They then gained
access to his checking account. Due to his celebrity and media
coverage, his name and date of birth were regularly mentioned in
the news, which likely aided the fraudster in accomplishing their
heist. The thief remains unidentified

Why Seniors?
A case like this one shows that anyone can become a victim of
identity theft, and older adults are often more vulnerable to
scams. True Link Financial reported that senior citizens lose more
than $36 billion a year to fraud. These range from Medicare
scams to tax fraud, mail theft, and beyond – often leading to
identity theft.
In March 2018, David Matthew Read, a 35-year-old man from Los
Angeles, impersonated Moore, and reported her no-limit
American Express card as stolen. He then intercepted the
replacement card from a FedEx location before it could be
delivered. Over the next 25 days, Read went on a number of
lavish spending sprees both online, and at luxury retail stores like
Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. All-in-all, the charges
exceeded $169,000 before Moore noticed and reported the theft.
Read has a prior history of theft and fraud and had been picked
up by police after purchasing a Mercedes with another person’s
information. He was then identified as the culprit in Moore’s case
after federal investigators obtained surveillance videos of him
shopping with her stolen card.

A case like this shows that even high-profile celebrities can be

successfully targeted by fraudsters. In cases like this, typically the
credit card company would alert the card owner to unusually high
purchases. However, such fraudulent charges, like the one’s
Moore experienced, have a reduced liability as many credit card
issuers and financial institutions have identity crime insurance and
will cover the charges associated with credit card fraud once
proven fraudulent.
Kenneth Gibson is a 47-year-old former IT (Information
Technology) professional from Reno, NV. Between 2012 and
2017, he was working for a large company where he had access
to the Personally Identifiable Information of thousands of
employees and customers. During this time, Gibson methodically
stole data from his employer until the day he left the company. He
then set up eight computers to run an automatic script of the
victims’ information to open fraudulent accounts and transfer
money. This automated system ran 24/7. Over time Gibson
opened up about 8,000 unauthorized PayPal accounts with the
stolen identities. He would then apply for, and open, credit
accounts linked to those PayPal accounts, withdrawing money via
cash advances. The stolen funds enabled Gibson and his family
to live lavishly. He bought a boat, traveled extensively, and was
allegedly a frequent gambler. By moving the money in many small
increments, he was able to avoid detection for years. But, like
many criminals, Gibson made a critical mistake that led to his
downfall. Eventually, after he got tired of having to make multiple
trips the to the ATM to retrieve his stolen cash, Gibson requested
that PayPal mail him a check. However, the name on one of these
requested checks matched one of Gibson’s victims. This is where
law enforcement could make their move after four months on the
case. Gibson ultimately confessed, and the FBI were able to
locate the computers he had operating in a leased office space.
On July 30, 2018, he was sentenced to 4 years in prison along
with 3 years of supervised release and 100 hours of community
service. In addition, he must pay $1 million in restitution and forfeit
assets to account for the $3.5 million stolen.
Tina Marie Brandon was a 2-year-old resident of Texas when she
tragically passed away on New Year’s Day 1960. According to
obituary records, her death was caused by an accident involving a
moving sidewalk at Dallas Love Field airport. It wasn’t until 30
years later that Brandon’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
would be compromised. In 1990, the then 39-year-old identity
thief, Deborah Lester, falsified a birth certificate in Brandon’s
name. Lester was able to get a Social Security number with the
phony certificate. SSNs are the “golden ticket” for identity thieves
since they are tied to other identity documents, credit, financial
accounts, government benefits, and more. As stated in a news
article, for the next 28 years, Lester committed identity fraud.
According to an arrest affidavit, she married once as Deborah
Lester and once as Tina Marie Brandon (becoming Tina Marie
Toch). She created multiple businesses and opened bank
accounts under both names, and she even obtained Colorado IDs
and driver licenses. In a September 2018 meeting with her
financial advisor, Lester revealed that she was being investigated
by the U.S. State Department. She divulged the details of the
identity fraud she had committed and was taken into custody by
Colorado Springs Police on October 31, 2018. This real case of
identity theft combines two of the most nefarious ways that
fraudsters commit their crimes – Ghosting and Child Identity
Theft. According to the IRS, 2.5 million deceased individuals have
their identity used for criminal activity annually. And, in 2017,
more than 1 million children were victims of identity theft. That
number is expected to rise in 2018 and beyond.