Archive Episode: The Credit Card Con Queen

This week on The Perfect Scan. She changed her voice at any given time. She was able to pretend to be somebody from various countries, to male female. She could change and pretend to be a victim versus an employee of a credit card company. So it was really, really impressive. The difference in tone or inflection that she would use really to change her voice. It was very impressive. Welcome back to The Perfect Scan. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. Imagine a criminal so skilled at doing impressions. She can pretend to be two parties on a three-way phone call. That's how Lisa Reed was able to rampage her way through victims' credit card accounts for nearly two years. Living a life of luxury, police once seized a closet full of jewelry, purses, and $5,000 shoes, while Lisa Reed was still on the run. Today's story offers a rare chance to hear a criminal inaction. You'll listen to recordings of Lisa Reed manipulating her voice and her victims, as she tries to steal almost $5 million worth of merchandise. How do police eventually track down the credit card con queen? Well, this story is amazing, so we've plucked it from the archives for you this week. We'll be back soon with more all-new episodes of The Perfect Scan. Almost 20 years ago, I wrote a book called Your Evil Twin, Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic. At the time, many consumers hadn't even heard of identity theft. Criminal impostors were just getting started. Today, it feels like ID theft is everywhere, hitting millions of consumers every year, roughly one in 20 US consumers annually, costing $16 billion, according to Javilan's strategy and research. Fortunately, when it comes to credit card fraud, most consumers are refunded when fraud happens. But that doesn't mean this is a victimless crime, not at all. Impostors can rack people's credit, cause endless paperwork hassles, and inflict emotional trauma. It's incredible how far criminals will go to impersonate their victims, and today, you're going to hear exactly what that sounds like. Here is our story of the credit card con queen, an actress who didn't play Broadway. Instead, she played the financial system. I'm at a theft, but there's not a million pieces of paper on my desk. I'm very neat and organized. I couldn't work with a million pieces of paper on my desk. No, I have four bookkeepers now that work for me at the time I had one other bookkeeper. Judy Heft runs a small bookkeeping company in New England, watching carefully over clients bills to make sure they get paid on time. She doesn't miss a thing. She even does house calls. For some clients, she goes to their homes every week, picks up the mail, and then brings it back to the office and prepares the bills. She knows her clients. So when something out of the ordinary happens, she usually catches it right away. And this, well, this set of credit card charges flashing across her computer screen is really unusual. For instance, there was $5,000 for charge that Barney is there were sex with Avenue charges out of the credit card and the checking account. And we knew that our client didn't have those kind of spending habits that they probably did not go to Barney's, you know, and $5,000 appears to use. So we reached out to the client to ask them if this was legit and it was not. Well, the problem with the client was they didn't always answer their phones when so what happened was the credit card companies called them to try and see if it was legit, but they didn't answer the phone. And they put the charges through anyway. And so luckily we cooperated within five days, there was $185,000 worth of charges. This was no ordinary credit card crime and no ordinary identity thief. The criminal was so deep into her client's accounts that she managed to take money from the victim's checking account to pay off the credit card bill to free up available credit so she could use the card to buy even more expensive items. You're buying a $5,000 cash to us. It's not too large or rack up $185,000 worth of, yeah, it was all designed or merchandise. The imposter has expensive taste and impressive skills. At first, Judy thinks it must have been an inside job. She calls the police who go to her clients home where everyone is a suspect. They had a lot of caregivers in the house. We weren't sure who had access to what there were a lot of tapers laying around in this house. We didn't know at first that it was an inside job or not. All the caregivers were interviewed and what turned out it wasn't, but it was really scary. It was upsetting and, you know, it's such an invasion of privacy. It was devastating. I had known this clients for a long time. It's just horrible. At about the same time, a woman will call Patty gets a call from her credit card company. They asked me if I'm at Nordstrom and I said, no. And they're like, you're not at Nordstrom's, you know, shopping in Florida. And I said, no, I'm not. I'm in Connecticut. And they're like, do you have your American Express card? And I said, yes. And they're like, are you sure? And I'm, you know, I take on my wallet. And I'm like, yeah, I'm looking at it. And I'm like, I'm positive. I'm looking at it. And they're like, we're going to call you back. Patty doesn't even have a personal credit card. The single mom in Connecticut is really careful about how she spends her money. She does have a corporate amix card through work, however. And now she feels caught up in a big crime. It was just shocking. Like, it was like, what is going on? It kind of felt like, oh, I don't want to use the word rollin' because it's incorrect words to use. But it was just like, you kind of felt like you were in a he's a little bit like, what's going on? Is this really like happening? And then obviously you want to help them because you're just like, okay, obviously, you know, I want to catch this person that's doing this. And then on top of that, like, I remember getting super emotional. And I was at work. And I remember going to the bathroom and I started to cry. What the heck is going on? At the same time law enforcement officials really want to catch the criminal too. A lot of them. When Judy calls the police, they call the FBI, which calls the Postal Inspection Office for help solving the crime. That's how Lauren Vambaco gets involved. We had so many running theories as you're developing a case, it could be this person that had access, could be somebody that had taken a picture of the credit cards. And in fact, it was nobody that had any access to the victims whatsoever other than the other person. We were thinking it was an inside job or somebody that had worked at the house or whatever the case may be and it wasn't. The crimes are so clever that dollar amounts so large, it seems like some kind of high-tech wizardry must be involved. Someone is stealing the identities of wealthy residents up and down the New England coastline. John Peerpot from the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office is on the case too. He says investigators know all these expensive items are being purchased over the telephone with stolen credit cards, but the criminals are pretty good at hiding their tracks. She would switch phone numbers pretty regularly. So it was very difficult for us to sort of track down who was doing this and how they were doing it because very regularly, once every 30 days, she would get rid of one phone and start using another phone, a different phone number. And so once we identified the new phone number, that might take us a week or two and we were really down to a week or two in the month to try to do whatever work we could with that phone before she would be off to the next phone number and we sort of be back at square one. How is this criminal, this imposter with expensive taste, able to dig so deeply into people's personal financial accounts? How does she get around fraud filters? It's not high-tech wizardry at all. It's just good acting by one very talented criminal. But if you listen to recordings that banks made of the criminal, well, you can be forgiven if you think it was a whole crime gang. This is Lisa Reed. I made a charge to go up really good from my computer and that happened with I had to use the cards since it all tied. And this is Lisa Reed. I want to give you my new address and phone number, please. Okay, what that, what you need to do is that you need me to make a charge to tax the revenue. And yes, even this is Lisa Reed. I the last time I used my card was in June. So I think that's where the problem came in when I made the large charge. So I can't be bothered with the shenanigans and I'll take my business somewhere else. I don't want to be going through this. All that. So Lisa Reed can trick banks into sharing information like this. And what's my last pay? $345.36. And what's my real credit? $8,390. Thank you. Good bye. You're very much welcome, sure. She can then take that information from the bank operator and use it to convince consumers that she's really calling from their bank. There is no brilliant hack, no tech wizardry involved in Lisa Reed's crimes. Her con game is straightforward. She picks numbers out of a phone book and then calls victims to ask for personal information like credit card numbers. To gain their trust, she plays various roles like claiming she's transferring the victim to a security expert. And then she changes her voice, tricking victims. into letting their guard down. -She changed her voice at any given time. Are the difference in tone or inflection that she would use really to change her voice. She was a master actress, it sounds like. -Yes. Yes. -Did she have a cast of characters that were sort of for go-to, which is recognized at any patterns after listening to a bunch of these calls? -When she had a similar voice when she pretended to be a male, so that voice was usually very similar. There were definitely go-to patterns when looking back where, at times, she would be very charming on the phone with the credit card company, just really trying to engage. And that's what a lot of fraudsters do during their telemarketing schemes is they have the gift of gab. -The gift of gab. By keeping victims on the phone, prolonging the conversation, she keeps probing away at different angles until she finds a way in, Pierpont says. Appearing to transfer people to a third party is a really persuasive technique. -And in this way, she really was able, I think, to build some trust and credibility with people who might otherwise be hesitant to provide information because she was just claiming from the very beginning that she would be able to receive it. She would actually sort of use a function on her cell phone to do a three-way dialing and actually dial in the real American Express 1-800 numbers. So you would hear the welcome music, this is American Express, please hold for a representative. She would then hang up on that three-way call to the American Express Line. And then using a different voice, she would say, "Hello, my name is Denise. How can I help you?" And so the victim, from the victim's perspective, the call has been fully transferred to American Express. And they're now speaking to an American Express representative. And then, of course, the victim would say something, "Well, I just heard there was fraud on my account and Ms. Reed pretending to be somebody else would then be off to the races in terms of obtaining personal identifying information." -Wow. So this is like a one-person show where she was playing two characters on the phone, right? -Yeah, two, sometimes three. You know, we heard instances where, you know, if someone asked to speak to a supervisor or if someone was hesitant to provide information, you know, she'd offered a transfer to them to somebody else and, you know, she could do a third voice. It was hard to believe listening to somebody's recording, but she really wasn't able to use multiple different voices to create a fact. -When Law enforcement starts to close in on Lisa Reed, executing a search warrant of her home in Long Island, New York, she manages to slip through their hands, escaping to Florida, leaving behind a really expensive closet. So we had to break into the closet to then obviously see all of these items in there. There was definitely over 400 pieces of evidence that we took while executing the search warrant and dozens and dozens and dozens of pairs of shoes, jewelry, purses, I mean, garbage bags full of stuff that we had. And I believe at the end when we did the estimate of it was half a million dollars worth of items, I certainly do not claim to be a fashionista or a fashion plate by any means. I was looking at these items with AUSI pair pot and my team leader at the time and trying to educate them on, yes, I know you see a pair of shoes, but this one pair of shoes is worth $5,000. -Lisa Reed seemed to like to pamper herself with expensive things, but she also bought luxury items for purpose. They were easier to sell. Fencing $1,000 perse is more lucrative and less work than selling dozens of $100 items online, Bumbako says. -She did have some individuals, I'll say clients that would purchase items from her. I mean, she lived off of this. This was basically her job. So then once she received the cash for the items from whoever she sold it to, she would go to the post office, buy a post of money order and pay her mortgage with it or buy a post of money order and pay her bills with it. Not all the time, but she definitely did that as well as use the finances just to live to party. She had children, I'm sure she used it to put food on the table. -Down in Florida, having fled for her freedom for now, she can't avoid pulling off more scams. While she must have known authorities were closing in, she commits one more crime. She buys a $50,000 watch using a compromised account. -I couldn't tell you, but the idea of buying a $50,000 watch when you're on the land for this exact thing that I find that very hard to believe as well, but it did happen. That was part of how we were able to sort of hone in on where she was in Florida. -It was the simplicity, the low-tech nature of the crime that stunned Bumbako. -Yes, that's absolutely. It was, you know, we're in the cyber world where everything is blockchains and Bitcoin and all of that stuff. And, you know, the dark web, which does exist. So I'm not saying that it doesn't. And there is a lot of fraud that happens and a lot of crime, you know, that happens with that stuff. But we were expecting like the newest, craziest thing. And it just totally wasn't. And it was definitely a wild moment when we saw, wow, this person has to be involved. They have to have access to the victims or the credit cards. I mean, the theories that we had were just craziness. And then it really came down to somebody looking up some names, cold-calling victims, and creating these voices. It was definitely interesting, for sure. And that was definitely a wild moment. -Read-Pled Guilty. There were 50 victims. And most consumers were made whole by their banks. But this was no victimless crime. -They were not of money that was stolen from them, but they were out of money because I had put a lot of time into helping them, you know, working with the post office and the police department and looking through everything, going through all the credit cards. There was a lot of hours involved in that. So that caused them a very stressful. Yeah, they were devastated. They couldn't believe it. Because especially in the beginning when we thought it was possibly the caregivers, that was really upsetting. -At least a read-sentencing, Patti shows up. She had declined to file a victim's statement, but sitting in that courtroom, she feels compelled to speak up. Here's her statement. -Miss Reed, we are all human and we all make bad decisions, some more than others. I do not live in a glass house, so I will not throw stones and I do not know anything about your life to judge you, nor your decisions in life. But I do want you to know that your decisions will not only affect you, they will also only affect my son and myself because I am so provider for my son. You are free to make any and every decision you want to make in life. But you are not free from the consequences of those choices. You stated that you need a bona fide chance to prove yourself worth and an opportunity to change the course and the direction of your life. If your words are true, then you will be willing to accept and understand any sentence that this court gives you. I would like you to know one last thing, which is that I forgive you. -I forgive you. Wow. I don't think most people would say that. What made you say that? -Because I feel like at the end of this is like, if I'm going to put this fully behind me, I need to forgive her because it's not for her, it's for me. Because if I hold on to what she did, then I am going to just be carrying this burden and this hurt for the rest of my life. And as much as I didn't deserve what she did to me, I also don't deserve that carry that burden. I don't deserve that. And I need to let that go. -Judy, the bookkeeper, says the story, "Totter and Important Lesson." -Yeah, I think it's really important to be vigilant. I mean, for instance, I check my accounts online every morning. I look at my credit cards and I look at my checking accounts just to make sure that everything's kosher and there's nothing there that I don't recognize. And if there is something there, I don't recognize. I mean, of course, you could forget something. I always question it and try to wrap my brains around it. And that's what we do for all our clients. It probably doesn't hurt to have a second pair of eyes on everything. If you don't have a family member that can do it, you might want to hire someone to do that for you. Just to, you know, I've seen a lot of fraud over the years. I really have. It's always good to have someone, you know, another pair of eyes. So I think just realize that banks can make mistakes too. But there's the hackers are so sophisticated these days. They really don't want to get in there and twist things around. -It's also important to know you don't have to answer the phone with every call. Even if you think you recognize a phone number, it's okay to let the call go to voicemail and call the person back. -So there are ways that people can manipulate a system just like she did. And that's a pretty low tech, a pretty easy way to do it. Spoofing is obviously a little, a little more complex than that, but not even very complex. So you certainly cannot trust the caller ID. I don't know how many times someone has called my house. With my own phone number, I mean, it happens all the time. So just because the person claims that it's a local phone number or it's a familiar name, obviously does not mean that that person is who they say they are and doesn't necessarily have good intentions. So I always say, you know, trust your instincts. You can also, always not answer the phone. You can call the person back if it's a financial institution on the other line. And so the credit card con queen she's traded in her $5,000 shoes for prison guard. In August 2020 she was sentenced to 90 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of Malfrod and one count of aggravated identity theft. Fambaco wonders what might have been. One of my go to phrases whenever I'm talking to people I do a lot of presentation as I always talk about how if only these people would put their minds to something good. The world would be such a better place like they they're so good at what they do and it would just be amazing if they actually did some good with it versus you know all this bad or all this crime or fraud or whatever the case may be. If she could do all those voices she could probably make an amazing podcast. You're absolutely right you're absolutely right. If you have been targeted by a scam or fraud you are not alone. Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360. Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next. Our email address at the perfect scam is the perfect scam podcast at aARP.org and we want to hear from you. If you've been the victim of a scam or you know someone who has and you'd like us to tell their story, write to us. That address again is the perfect scam podcast at aARP.org. Thank you to our team of scam busters. Associate producer Anali Embry, researcher Becky Dodson, executive producer Julie Gets, and our audio engineer and sound designer Julio Gonzalez. Be sure to find us on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. For AARP's The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan.