Woman Posing as Post Employee Obtained Numbers by Calling Advertisers
By Henri E. Cauvin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
A woman posing as a Washington Post employee is suspected of duping dozens of the newspaper's advertisers into turning over their credit card numbers, according to The Post and the U.S. attorney's office.
Using the telephone numbers placed in classified ads, the woman would call advertisers claiming that she worked for the paper, Post spokesman Eric Grant said in a statement yesterday afternoon.
The woman would explain that the advertiser's credit card number had not gone through and that she needed to run it again. After the person provided the card information, the woman would use it to start making charges to that account.
At least 50 people have been victims of the scam, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because charges have not been filed.
The identity theft scam came to the paper's attention in 2002, and The Post notified the D.C. police, the paper said. Why the investigation has moved so slowly was not immediately clear, and officials would not say when the scam began or when it ended. The inquiry is now in the hands of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is frequently involved in investigating identity theft, and the investigation appears to be coming to a close.
Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said that he could not disclose the woman's identity while she was still under investigation.
A law passed in 2004 by the D.C. Council makes identity theft that results in a loss of more than $250 a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But only fraud alleged to have taken place since then would be covered by that statute.
Other potential charges, under long-established laws, would include theft, fraud and credit card fraud.
The Post has been cooperating in the investigation, Phillips said.
Grant said that after learning of the scam, The Post took steps to protect advertisers from such frauds. Advertisers are now given a unique identification number and are told not to divulge information to anyone claiming to work for The Post unless the person supplies that number.
Classified advertising has long been a bulwark of newspaper revenue, but in recent years, many customers have been migrating to free online ad services such as Craigslist.
Ensuring that newspapers' ads are used only for legitimate purposes is critical to the industry as it seeks to distinguish itself from outlets that are cheaper or even free, said John Kimball, chief marketing officer for the Newspaper Association of America.
Newspapers, he said, are "mindful of the fact that credibility is one of the differentiating factors" between them and other advertising forums.
Staff writer Allison Klein contributed to this report.
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