In March of 2019, Ryan Tichy created a fake driver’s license in his own image and went to Bretz RV and Marine in Boise, Idaho where he impersonated someone with the initials J.B. While there, Tichy submitted a credit application and bought an Aspen Trail travel trailer, which cost over $19,000. But travel wasn’t on Tichy’s mind with that trailer, only fraud. Tichy converted that travel trailer into a mobile unit to use for producing false identifications and phony credit cards. And it didn’t end there. He stocked that trailer with materials, machines, computers and printers. The trailer also contained foils for drivers licenses emblems, an embosser, and a card punch. Business was open.
From at least May 2018 through Nov. 2020, Tichy executed a scheme to defraud wherein he obtained the identification of many individuals and used that information to create false identification documents, open credit accounts, obtain loans, takeover existing credit accounts, and make purchases. The fraudulently obtained personal identifiable information included names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and account numbers.
Tichy would often create a fake driver’s license using his picture but with the victim’s name. With the intent to steal, Tichy traveled around Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, and other states to fraudulently open credit accounts, obtain loans, take over existing credit accounts and make purchases” worth between $95,000 and $150,000. Tichy’s shopping spree was busted and was sentenced on March 16, 2023, to 90 months in prison.
Great job by the Social Security Administration on nabbing this fraud.
Today’s Fraud Of The Day is based on article “‘Identity theft lab’ found inside trailer lands Washington man behind bars, feds say” published by The News Tribune on March 16, 2023
A Washington man sentenced to 90 months in prison on identity theft charges had a fully equipped mobile lab in a trailer for his enterprise, federal officials reported. Ryan M. Tichy, 43, of Seattle, was sentenced Thursday, March 16, in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Idaho said in a news release. Tichy stole the identities of numerous people from May 2018 through November 2020, the release said.
He used their information to “create false identification documents open credit accounts, obtain loans, take over existing credit accounts, and make purchases,” prosecutors said. He made the “fraudulent purchases” across Idaho, Washington and other western states. When federal authorities served a search warrant in December 2020, they discovered a “mobile identity theft lab” inside a trailer, the release said. The trailer, purchased under a stolen identity, contained computers, printers and other equipment for producing counterfeit identity cards, prosecutors said.
