Police arrest 15-year-old in identity theft scam

HAPEVILLE, Ga. -- A 15-year-old boy racked up thousands of dollars in charges and even built his own police car through an elaborate identity theft scam that took credit card numbers from at least a dozen people, authorities said.

The boy, who has not been identified because of his age, allegedly operated the scheme from his mother's home in Hapeville, just south of Atlanta.

First he got the names and Social Security numbers of credit card holders from someone for $500 to $600. Police do not yet know who that person was. The teen then used Internet search engines to get the victims' phone numbers and called them.

Claiming he was a private investigator, he would tell credit card holders he was invest- igating cases of identity theft and needed their financial information to determine if they had been victims.

To help complete the illusion, the boy even set up a fictitious detective agency called Prudencio Investigations. The phony detective agency had a voicemail message and an Atlanta mailing address -- the address of his grandmother's home.

Once he had the victims' information, he would call their credit card companies and have himself listed as an authorized user for the cards. He then ran up $17,000 on one card and $10,000 on another, police said.

Police have identified at least 12 victims. Most of them are in the Atlanta area but some are from North Carolina and New York.

The boy then used some of the ill-gotten money to print business cards that identified him as a police officer. Using that, he bought a Ford Crown Victoria and equipped it with gear found on a police cruiser.

"For a 15-year-old, that was pretty impressive," said police Lt. William Shelton. "He would probably make a decent living if he used that effort toward a legitimate goal."

But the scam began to unravel about two weeks ago when police officers saw a young teenage boy getting into a Crown Victoria that had been modified to look like a police car, complete with front spotlights and push bumpers.

He was driving without a license but had valid insurance. He had used his real name to buy it, police said, but had faked his age.

When police searched his house, they found blank checks, notebooks with the names and birthdays of several people and a receipt from a print shop where he was getting business cards printed, identifying himself as a member of the Hapeville police department.

More than two years ago, the boy was arrested for stealing mail out of mailboxes. He was charged with identity theft in that case but tried in juvenile court because he was 13.

"He told us that had the juvenile court been a little stricter with his punishment then, he wouldn't be doing what he was doing today," Shelton said.