written by Kirk Mitchell - August 13, 2010 - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com
A private investigator was arrested and charged with felony stalking recently in Weld County for doing what colleagues say is the backbone of their profession: surveillance.
Timothy Allan Stitt, 42, was charged in Weld County District Court for putting a tracking device on the car of Shantele Sherman in LaSalle last month.
Stitt admitted he was following Sherman at the behest of her estranged husband, Jeff Schudel.
The two are in a child-custody dispute.
"I don't know if that's ever happened before," said Denver private investigator Ryan Ross, who writes a blog about private-investigator issues in Colorado. "The charges weren't specific to him using a GPS. The ramifications are much broader."
A prosecutor at the Weld County district attorney's office filed a stalking charge against Stitt after Sherman claimed she suffered severe emotional distress. Schudel, too, has been charged with stalking.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Rourke said he couldn't comment on Stitt's case out of fairness to him. Rourke said he was not aware of any private investigators ever being charged with stalking before.
Stitt was charged under a subsection of the stalking statute. People violate the law if they repeatedly follow, approach, contact, place under surveillance or make any form of communication with another person — or a member of that person's family — and cause him or her "serious emotional distress."
The statute does not require the complainant to receive professional counseling in order to prove the criteria are met.
Rourke said he believes private investigators should be concerned about the statute if they are causing people serious emotional distress.
But Ross said police also follow possible criminals, and that distresses them. Just like police, private investigators perform a legitimate service, he said.
"A lot of private investigators have cases that obligate them to follow somebody," Ross said. "When we get hired, it's not for prurient interests. It's to protect the life and safety of children."
In some cases, people hire private investigators to try to gather evidence that their spouse has a drinking problem or other habits that jeopardize their kids.
In Stitt's case, Schudel allegedly called his estranged wife and told her he had paid a lot of money to track her whereabouts, an arrest warrant affidavit says.
"Shantele stated that (her husband) knew exactly when she was out at night and when she was at work," the document says. "So if it takes three months or three years, these people will be watching how you care for our son."
Sherman found a black metal GPS device with two green lights attached under her car. She said she was shaking.
There was no indication in the arrest affidavit that Sherman knew Stitt was following her until her husband called her.
Colorado lawmakers defined stalking as involving "highly inappropriate intensity, persistence and possessiveness, it entails great unpredictability and creates great stress and fear for the victim."
"It involves severe intrusions on the victim's personal privacy . . . as well as risks to security and safety of the victim."
When the detective interviewed Stitt, who has a business called Civil Task Force Investigations, Stitt acknowledged working for Schudel. He said Schudel paid him $300 to put the GPS device under Sherman's car. He had been following Sherman for about two weeks.
Stitt declined to comment to The Denver Post.
Ross said there are as many as 500 private investigators in Colorado, which does not license them.
"PIs and clients don't want to have to guess what a police officer will do," Ross said. "If we know where the line is, we won't cross it."
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Beware Of the Credit Card Skimmer Scam
written by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - Aug. 1, 2010, The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic
The Arizona Department of Weights and Measures is warning consumers to take extra precautions to protect their identities because of an increase in the use of illicit credit-card readers at gas pumps.
Police departments around the state have reported at least 30 cases related to "skimmers" - illegal reading devices attached to legitimate credit-card readers - found at gas stations in the past six months, said Shawn Marquez, director of compliance programs for the state agency.
Skimmers have been reported in Maricopa, La Paz and Mohave counties, and in the cities of Phoenix, Lake Havasu City, Bullhead City, Kingman, Glendale and Surprise, the agency said.
According to police departments in the counties that reported skimmer activity, cases have cropped up sporadically over the past year, but not in a concentrated area. It appears the scammers moved in and out of each area quickly.
The tiny devices are surreptitiously installed into or onto gas pumps, copying the electronic data in the magnetic strip of credit or debit cards as people swipe them at the pump. The information can then be used to counterfeit credit or debit cards. Skimmers also are commonly planted in ATMs, authorities said.
The devices are not planted by the business owners, but by scammers adept at placing them at key locations.
Last month, Gov. Jan Brewer directed the Department of Weights and Measures to increase training and inspection efforts to search for skimmers.
Over the next few weeks, state inspectors will increase the number of inspections on gas pumps, hold training seminars for its officers on technology used to detect skimmers and work with professionals in the petroleum industry to collaborate on detection and protective measures, Marquez said.
Because skimmers often are placed inside the pumps, it is difficult for consumers to detect them, Marquez said. But he urged people to report any suspicious devices on or around any gas pump.
Skimmers are about 2 inches long, with electrical wires attached.
The problem is not restricted to gas pumps. Jeno Erdelyi, 46, a Californian working in the restaurant business, said skimmers are common enough that even waiters sometimes hide the devices in their wallets or belts to secretly swipe cards.
Erdelyi, who was recently visiting Phoenix, said he withdraws cash to buy gas. He uses oil-company credit cards only when he travels for work.
Gouinda Das, 36, a Phoenix Shell gas-station attendant, said most patrons use cards to purchase their gas. Only about 30 to 40 customers a day pay with cash, usually when they buy other items at the convenience store, he said.
Miljan Rakic, 21, who was gassing up recently at a Phoenix station, said he routinely checks his online statements and uses credit cards with fraud-protection guarantees to avoid identity theft.
Rakic, a former credit-company employee, said he has encountered customers whose identities were stolen after running their cards through skimmers attached to gas-pump card readers. The devices resembled small lock boxes, he said, so patrons assumed the skimmers were a part of the card reader.
Like Rakic, consumers should regularly monitor their credit- and debit-card statements and check their credit scores, said Steven Katz, senior director of corporate communications at TransUnion, a national credit company.
Before draining an account, identity thieves may charge a few small transactions to see if card owners are monitoring their accounts, said Jennifer Leuer, general manager of ProtectMyID, an identity-protection service with Experian.
Any discrepancies in bank statements should be reported immediately to the bank, police and credit bureaus, because the amount card owners are liable for may increase the longer they wait to report fraud, Leuer said.
Consumer liability is limited to $50 for credit cards once the card is reported lost or stolen. But for debit cards, the liability fee is dependent on the number of days consumers wait to report it. According to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, consumers could be responsible for all the money lost in their accounts if they wait longer than 60 days from the date the bank statement is mailed.
The Arizona Department of Weights and Measures is warning consumers to take extra precautions to protect their identities because of an increase in the use of illicit credit-card readers at gas pumps.
Police departments around the state have reported at least 30 cases related to "skimmers" - illegal reading devices attached to legitimate credit-card readers - found at gas stations in the past six months, said Shawn Marquez, director of compliance programs for the state agency.
Skimmers have been reported in Maricopa, La Paz and Mohave counties, and in the cities of Phoenix, Lake Havasu City, Bullhead City, Kingman, Glendale and Surprise, the agency said.
According to police departments in the counties that reported skimmer activity, cases have cropped up sporadically over the past year, but not in a concentrated area. It appears the scammers moved in and out of each area quickly.
The tiny devices are surreptitiously installed into or onto gas pumps, copying the electronic data in the magnetic strip of credit or debit cards as people swipe them at the pump. The information can then be used to counterfeit credit or debit cards. Skimmers also are commonly planted in ATMs, authorities said.
The devices are not planted by the business owners, but by scammers adept at placing them at key locations.
Last month, Gov. Jan Brewer directed the Department of Weights and Measures to increase training and inspection efforts to search for skimmers.
Over the next few weeks, state inspectors will increase the number of inspections on gas pumps, hold training seminars for its officers on technology used to detect skimmers and work with professionals in the petroleum industry to collaborate on detection and protective measures, Marquez said.
Because skimmers often are placed inside the pumps, it is difficult for consumers to detect them, Marquez said. But he urged people to report any suspicious devices on or around any gas pump.
Skimmers are about 2 inches long, with electrical wires attached.
The problem is not restricted to gas pumps. Jeno Erdelyi, 46, a Californian working in the restaurant business, said skimmers are common enough that even waiters sometimes hide the devices in their wallets or belts to secretly swipe cards.
Erdelyi, who was recently visiting Phoenix, said he withdraws cash to buy gas. He uses oil-company credit cards only when he travels for work.
Gouinda Das, 36, a Phoenix Shell gas-station attendant, said most patrons use cards to purchase their gas. Only about 30 to 40 customers a day pay with cash, usually when they buy other items at the convenience store, he said.
Miljan Rakic, 21, who was gassing up recently at a Phoenix station, said he routinely checks his online statements and uses credit cards with fraud-protection guarantees to avoid identity theft.
Rakic, a former credit-company employee, said he has encountered customers whose identities were stolen after running their cards through skimmers attached to gas-pump card readers. The devices resembled small lock boxes, he said, so patrons assumed the skimmers were a part of the card reader.
Like Rakic, consumers should regularly monitor their credit- and debit-card statements and check their credit scores, said Steven Katz, senior director of corporate communications at TransUnion, a national credit company.
Before draining an account, identity thieves may charge a few small transactions to see if card owners are monitoring their accounts, said Jennifer Leuer, general manager of ProtectMyID, an identity-protection service with Experian.
Any discrepancies in bank statements should be reported immediately to the bank, police and credit bureaus, because the amount card owners are liable for may increase the longer they wait to report fraud, Leuer said.
Consumer liability is limited to $50 for credit cards once the card is reported lost or stolen. But for debit cards, the liability fee is dependent on the number of days consumers wait to report it. According to the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, consumers could be responsible for all the money lost in their accounts if they wait longer than 60 days from the date the bank statement is mailed.
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