Bait and switch: Con artist steals thousands in credit card scam

TUCSON — Credit card fraud takes place every day in a variety of ways. You can't always prevent it from happening, but you can create some obstacles and make it tougher for someone to get a hold of your personal information.

Joshua Stephens

Postal inspectors say Joshua Stephens pulled a bait and switch of sorts on six financial financial institutions in a credit card scam.

"He would apply for various accounts as the account holder, then he would get debit cards associated with those accounts and then he would take those debit cards and make various high dollar purchases," explained U.S. Postal Inspector David Birch.

Once Stephens bought the items, he would report he never received the card and it had been stolen.

A credit card from Pima Federal Credit Union was one the banks Stephens said was stolen.

"They filled out fraudulent paperwork stating that they had never received the card and the card had been stolen from the mail," recalled Dawn Blackmon from Pima Federal Credit Union.

Dawn Blackmon

Investigators quickly realized that was not that case.

Surveillance tape from the retailers involved show Stephens himself making pruchases with credit cards.

"He was using these purchases …to augment his business and making high dollar purchases and save him that expense and put that back on the taxpayer and back on the financial situations," Birch said.

In all, there was more than $10,000 in losses. Investigators want consumers to know this is not a victimless crime.

"Sometimes there is a misconception that their insurance will cover that and there is no insurance coverage for fraud," Blackmon said.

"Any losses that are incurred by a credit union directly affect our members what services we can offer to our members and also participation in our communities," Birch explained.

Joshua Stephens was convicted of bank fraud and served just under a year in prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution.