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Amityville resident Lisa Reid, 47, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release after she targeted dozens of victims as part of an elaborate scheme that ran for nearly two years.
In addition to her time behind bars, Reid was also ordered to pay $1,009,235.69 in restitution to her victims.
U.S. Attorney John Durham said that between February 2015 and January 2017, Reid was involved in a scheme to defraud credit card companies and their customers by fraudulently taking over credit card accounts and, using those accounts, making unauthorized purchases from high-end retailers.
As part of her scheme, Durham said Reid used publicly available information to obtain phone numbers for individuals living in affluent areas. She then called her victims pretending to be a representative of a credit card company and claiming that the company needed information about their account.
The victims would then provide Reid with their account information, including credit card numbers and passwords. Reid then contacted the credit card company, pretending to be the victim.
After providing all of the requested security information, Reid added a new phone number and address to the account. The address was typically an abandoned or foreclosed property near her home in New York. Reid then used the compromised credit card accounts to order merchandise from high-end retailers and had the merchandise shipped to an address that she had previously added to the credit card account.
After Reid, or a “runner,” retrieved the merchandise, she sold it at a pawnshop or to other individuals.
Through the scheme, Durham said that Reid stole the identities of more than 50 individuals, most of whom were senior citizens, and used their credit card information to purchase more than $1 million in merchandise.
Durham noted that credit card companies targeted in the scheme managed to successfully thwart approximately $3.8 million worth of Reid’s attempted purchases.
On Dec. 20, 2016, federal agents executed a search warrant at Reid’s residence and attempted to arrest Reid, who had fled to Florida after committing another fraudulent credit card purchase of a $50,500 Cartier watch using a compromised account.
Reid was ultimately tracked down and arrested on Feb. 5, 2017. In November that year, she pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Durham noted that in October 2010, Reid was convicted in the Eastern District of Kentucky of federal bank fraud and aggravated identity theft offenses, and was sentenced to 27 months in prison and five years of supervised release. The convictions stemmed from a similar credit card takeover scheme that also defrauded victims of approximately $1 million.
At the time of her latest scheme, Reid was on supervised release. She may face additional charges and penalties in Kentucky.
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