
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 31, 1995                   TAG: 9503310092
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                  LENGTH: Medium

COUPLE ARRESTED IN THEFT, CREDIT-CARD BUYING SPREE

Police have arrested a teen-age couple who allegedly charged more than $11,000 worth of merchandise in five days using the credit line of a stranger.

A college student and a temporary employee at a credit service agency were arrested after a citizen listening to a radio scanner picked up a cellular telephone discussion of the scheme and called police.

``Neither of these people are stupid,'' said Detective Bobby Sager. ``This wasn't like a wallet fell on the floor and they found a credit card and said, `Hey, look what I got, let's go crazy.' This was considerably more intelligent.''

Both Jennifer L. Adams, 18, and Lamont R. Williams, 19, admitted their involvement, police said.

Sager said this is how the scheme worked:

Adams, who worked at Household Credit Services in Chesapeake, used her position to review the credit limits of customers who have General Motors credit cards. She and Williams selected a man with a $10,000 limit and copied his personal information.

Williams, an ROTC student at Hampton University, used a change-of-address procedure to divert the man's mail to a post office box. Then he assumed the cardholder's identity and convinced representatives of the credit-card company that he needed a new card to replace a damaged one.

The new card, diverted to the post office box, was used along with a blank military identification card that Williams acquired through his ROTC involvement. He put his picture and the cardholder's name on the ID.

Adams and Williams initially purchased about $6,500 in merchandise with the GM card, and then used it and the fake ID to open additional credit accounts and charge more merchandise at stores in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, police said.

The couple shared the bounty with at least two friends. One of the friends described what was going on in a conversation on a cellular phone bought with the credit card, leading to the arrests.

Adams and Williams were taken into custody March 13 and charged with one count each of credit-card theft, fraud and forgery. Sager said he will review the case with the commonwealth's attorney to determine whether additional charges will be brought.

Each separate purchase could result in three charges, Sager said, for a total of about 300 charges against the couple.

by CNB