A travel bucket list should consist of the highest priority must-see or must-do experiences. These tend to be big goals that are a little harder to reach. Not necessarily a complete list of all the places you want to go to, just the biggest and most important destinations. Maegen Catherine Fortin’s travel bucket list was like no other. Because the biggest and most important destinations for Fortin were credit unions, where Fortin vacation activity was to hustle money using stolen identities.
Between May 2020 and September 2021, Fortin, 40, conducted fraudulent transactions at credit unions in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri using fraudulent passports and military IDs. Fortin never served in the military by the way. Fraudsters only serve themselves. Which is exactly what Fortin did. Using the stolen identities, Fortin opened credit union accounts with the goal to apply for loans, lines of credit, accounts, and/or credit or debit cards in the victims’ names. Within the year and a half long road trip, Fortin successfully obtained $460,000 using personal information or fraudulent forms of identification for 25 victims.
Great job by the F.B.I. with putting an end to Fortin’s road trip. At the time of her arrest, Fortin possessed fraudulent documents and other identifying information of an estimated ninety people. On August 4, 2023, Fortin was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for financial institution fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Otsego woman sentenced to 7 years for identity theft” published by Credit Union Times on August 11, 2023
An Otsego woman who used other peoples’ personal information to obtain money from 30 credit unions and four businesses in eight states was sentenced Aug. 4 to more than seven years in federal prison.
Maegen Catherine Fortin, 40, received the prison term after a Sept. 15, 2022, guilty plea to one count of financial institution fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Iowa. Information from Fortin’s plea and sentencing showed that between March 2020 and September 2021, Fortin engaged in fraudulent conduct at credit unions and businesses located in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
