The Mount Pleasant Police Department arrested a Bronx man in relation to a ring of fraud schemes at the Sprint Wireless Store in Hawthorne.
Darlin Lopez-Garcia, 37, was arrested on January 28, 2012 on felony charges of forgery and identity theft as well as misdemeanor larceny. An investigation by the Mount Pleasant Police Department determined Lopez-Garcia to be a suspect.
According to Mount Pleasant Police Chief Louis Alagno, Lopez-Garcia allegedly hacked into multiple Sprint Wireless customer store accounts and then renewed a two-year contract on the customer’s account to purchase a new Apple iPhone, which he would later pick up from the store acting as the individual. He would later sell the phones for a higher price.
“This is a whole new form of fraud that we’ve never seen before,” Alagno said. “The most difficult part about it is that by the time the customer realizes that the phone has been purchased on their account, the phone is long gone and sold on the streets somewhere.”
Alagno said it is undisclosed how much money was stolen in the fraud and that the scheme likely contains more individuals. The investigation is ongoing.
