Charges added in credit card fraud case
By Gary Popp
Published in News on April 22, 2011 1:46 PM
The three people charged earlier his month for credit card fraud have been charged with more offenses by Goldsboro police.
Joanta Scarlett, 22, Duane Anderson, 21, and Anessa Niranjan, 18, all from out of state and, at times, working as a team, are believed to be responsible for nearly $12,000 in fraudulent purchases in area stores including Target and Wal-Mart.
Since they were first apprehended, Ms. Scarlett and Anderson have been charged with 15 additional charges of obtaining property by false pretenses. Ms. Scarlett was placed under an additional secured bond of $30,000 while Anderson was placed under an additional secured bond of $25,000.
Ms. Scarlett and Anderson were also charged with 78 counts each of financial card forgery and placed under an additional $130,000 secured bond.
The total secured bond for Ms. Scarlett is $593,000.
Anderson is facing a total secured bond of $530,000.
Ms. Niranjan has been charged with 14 counts of aiding and abetting obtaining property by false pretense.
Ms. Niranjan was placed under an additional secured bond of $25,000.
Ms. Niranjan is now facing a total secured bond of $75,000.
Investigators say that all of the additional charges stem from the ongoing investigation into fraudulent credit card numbers being used to purchase pre-paid Visa cards, gift cards and other merchandise from the Goldsboro Target at Sunburst Drive on April 14.
Investigator Dwayne Dean explained that the suspects are believed to be involved in stealing pre-paid credit card from stores and encoding the cards with stolen credit card numbers from around the country.
The suspects then used the fraudulently encoded cards to make purchases of merchandise and gift cards, Dean said.
The suspects have purchased high-dollar electronics with the encoded cards including laptop computers, iPods, iPod accessories and a GPS unit.
Investigators said the suspects have been in continuous custody in the Wayne County Jail at the time the additional arrest warrants were served.