Florida man swindles thousands from NC customer duped by fake Wells Fargo rep, feds say
Two Wells Fargo customers lost a combined $47,000 to a 26-year-old man from Florida accused of stealing their debit and credit card information, according to federal prosecutors.
Kamori Dontae Keys was arrested in Wisconsin this month and charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, aiding and abetting bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said Monday in a news release.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Keys — who reportedly lives in Florida — was doing in Wisconsin at the time.
“During the scheme, Keys and his co-conspirators unlawfully obtained the customers’ bank account information and then withdrew their funds in the Eastern District of North Carolina via cash withdrawals and point of sale transactions, thereby causing an approximate loss of over $45,000 to the victim bank,” prosecutors said in the news release.
The scheme targeted Wells Fargo bank customers in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Florence, South Carolina, according to court filings and federal prosecutors.
In September 2019, unknown individuals called a customer in Charlotte while pretending to be Wells Fargo representatives investigating fraudulent activity on the customer’s checking account, the criminal indictment states.
During the conversation, they reportedly convinced the customer “to disclose sensitive credit/debit card information.”
Keys then used a duplicate of the customer’s debit card at retailers and bank branches across eastern North Carolina in Pitt, Johnston and Lenoir counties, according to the indictment. The customer reportedly lost a total of $43,917.
Around the same time, Keys reportedly used a duplicate debit card with account information belonging to a Wells Fargo customer in Florence to make transactions over the border in Cumberland County totaling $3,748, according to court filings.
Keys is also accused of buying $500 money orders with the stolen debit card information.
Some were sent “directly to conspirators, including Keys, while other money orders were used to purchase jewelry and pay other unidentified individuals,” the criminal indictment states.
The losses to Wells Fargo from both accounts totaled $47,665, according to court filings.
Court filings show Keys was arrested Sept. 1. Prosecutors said he faces at least two years in prison for the identity theft charge and up to 30 years in prison for the bank fraud charges if he’s convicted.
