Whitman College Student Arrested for Identity Theft

The Walla Walla Police Department arrested a student that attended the courses of Whitman College after allegedly forging ID cards that would give him access to restricted areas.

The Pioneer informs us that Simon Van Neste was apprehended by the police after an automated alert message indicated that a staff member's ID card attempted to access a secure area of the campus.

In the possession of the suspect investigators later found a forged ID card that had his picture but someone else's ID number. They also found a magnetic stripe-card encoder which helped him replicate the cards.

After obtaining the login password of an employee, he utilized it to access the information of other students and create fake cards.

“At this point, the investigations have found no evidence that the student obtained access to confidential or private information retained by other campus community members or to critical and confidential data retained by the College. We believe that most aspects of the network and the information it contains remain very secure,” said President George Bridges in an email sent out to students.

The investigators are now analyzing a few hard drives that contain the data used by Van Neste to steal identities.

Since the suspect used the cards to access areas from where he didn't leave empty handed, besides the second degree identity theft, he also faces second degree burglary charges. The student is now held in Walla Walla county jail until the investigation is finalized.

Luckily for the students who fell victim to this operation, the crook was only after their ID numbers and not their bank accounts.

Also, the college must be praised for setting in place the systems which quickly identified the fraud attempt. Incidents are bound to happen but the way they are handled can make the difference.