30 Charged In Counterfeit Scheme

Thirty people have been charged in a $10 million fraud scheme that involved counterfeiting checks, bank statements and credit card receipts pulled out of the trash.

“What we’re finding is people are getting more and more clever with what they pull out of the trash,” U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander said. “This is the most clever scam I’ve ever seen.”

The defendants, who defrauded people in 17 states, used checks, bank statements, credit card receipts and other documents from garbage bins to create counterfeit checks, false driver’s licenses and false credit reports, Alexander said.

Investigators said software was used to rub out information on the discarded paper. Counterfeit blank checks, printed on high-quality color printers, were allegedly used to defraud banks of $2 million.