14 DAY TRIAL // A 23-year old coordinator of the Jewish Community Services of South Florida office in North Miami was arrested after an undercover police informant was offered the personal information of 30 Holocaust survivors for the sum of $1000 (€700).
According to the Miami Herald, Crystal Thorne offered a sample of five identities containing names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers belonging to those who sought help from the Holocaust Survivors Assistance Program, to the informant.
Pretending to need all the information for a tax refund scam, the informant was offered an extra 30 identities in return for the above mentioned sum of money.
When the deal went down, the informant met Thorne in a parking lot where the transaction was programmed to take place. He was wired and the bills that he was supposed to hand over to the suspect were marked to make sure the police had enough evidence on the suspect to obtain a conviction.
The community worker possessed an envelope containing 32 identity sheets retrieved from her workplace and after the suspect got out of the informant's vehicle, they were both arrested.
Once she was confronted with the evidence, Thorne admitted to the whole plot, claiming that she only did it in hopes that she'll make a “couple of dollars.” The identity thief also stated that it was not the first time when she gave the informant such data, confessing to the fact that the documents were indeed obtained from the Jewish Community Services of South Florida.
It's said that the South Florida region is somewhat of a fraud heaven, many identity thefts and credit card schemes being reported to the authorities, but this situation beats them all.
It may be true that “there is no honor among thieves,” but it's highly unfortunate that there aren't any signs of moral values when committing something like this.