14 DAY TRIAL // The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) charged Brandon Lee Price from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, with bank fraud after he convinced Citibank employees to send him the debit card of Paul Allen, Microsoft’s co-founder.
Threat Level reports that the suspect called Citibank on January 9 and impersonated Allen, convincing a bank representative to change the address on his account.
Three days later, he called the bank’s customer service department, stating that he lost his debit card, but didn’t want to report it as being stolen because he believed that it was misplaced at his residence.
After Citibank sent him a new card via UPS, Price activated it by phone on January 13. On the same day, the former Army member, who deserted the service in June 2010, made a payment of $658 via phone to his own account.
When he realized that he could do whatever he wanted with Paul Allen’s account, he attempted to perform a $15,000 transaction through Western Union, but the transfer did not go through.
The next day, on January 14, he tried to make a purchase at a Gamestop store, which also failed. On this occasion the surveillance footage caught an African American male wearing an Army jacket and a grey knit cap.
The same man was seen later at a Family Dollar store making a $1 (0.75 EUR) purchase, also being spotted on February 9 by FBI agent Joseph J. Ondercin, the one that filed the court complaint, near the residence of the defendant.
“Through our own security procedures, Citibank identified the actions of a fraudulent account take over and turned the matter over to law enforcement. We will continue to work with law enforcement in the ongoing investigation,” Citibank spokeswoman Catherine Pulley said.
Note. My Twitter account has been erroneously suspended. While this is sorted out, you can contact me via my author profile.