Identity Theft Protect Yourself from Income Tax Fraud

Expect to see more cases of income-tax fraud like those involving Erkes Antwon Green, a man charged with bank fraud and being investigated for filing possibly more than 100 tax returns using others’ names.

Atlanta police arrested him in February, alleging Green opened a bank account with a stolen check. Further investigation showed Green had files of names and Social Security numbers and was filing tax returns with that information, police said.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

Income-tax fraud is the fastest-growing area of identity theft, doubling each year in recent years, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Making it easier: the proliferation of debit- and credit-card use; online shopping, with personal information moved around electronically; and consumer data collected by agencies and companies, from which it can be filched.

The IRS inspector general estimated last July that the government could spend as much as $21 billion in the next five years to catch and punish fraudsters who have used others’ identities to file for false tax refunds.

It usually starts with a stolen Social Security number, said Jonathan Swartz, an accountant and financial adviser from the Bennett Thrasher accounting firm in Atlanta.

He said he and his colleagues in the field are seeing more cases pop up when they file a return for a client, only to have the IRS reject the return because someone has already filed in that name. It can take IRS computers months to catch up to the false information used to complete the return.

The theft can be as sophisticated as criminal rings who collect, then sell the numbers, or as simple as a thief diving into someone’s trash to find financial documents.

Swartz advises to take steps to limit your risks, such as signing up for one of the pay-for-service identity-protection firms such as TrustedID. Credit bureaus such as Equifax offer similar services.

There are also free things you can do, such as putting a Google alert on your name, which will monitor online mentions of it.

Swartz said the first step to protection is to shield your Social Security number. “You should be ready to question why anyone would need that,” during any transaction, he said.

He recommends these steps if you find out that someone has already used your identity to file a false tax return:

• Contact the IRS, fill out an IRS form 14039 and return it to the agency. Find the form online here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf.

• Contact the credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and alert them that your identity has been stolen and ask that a fraud alert be put on your name.

Swartz asks the credit bureaus to put a lock on his credit, so no one can open new credit accounts. Unlocking for purchases such as a new home or car loan requires a few easy steps.

• Ask the credit bureaus for copies of your credit history; close any accounts you don’t recognize.

• Call police and file an ID theft report.

• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

Here are more tips to protect your identity, according to Swartz and others:

• Secure smartphones, computers and tablets with passwords, location software and the ability to erase the data if one is lost or stolen.

• Erase data when upgrading or getting rid of old devices. Or remove hard drives from old computers and scratch the drive surface deeply with a hard tool before disposing.

• Put your name on do-not-mail lists by visiting here at the FTC, www.consumer.ftc.gov. Or pay a service such as TrustedID to clean up your online existence.

• Restrict your info on social media such as Facebook and limit the people who can see it by checking and adjusting your privacy settings at least once a month.

• Don’t give out your ZIP code to retailers at the register. Knowing your ZIP code allows them to easily find your entire address so they can send you unwanted mail, such as credit-card applications, which can be stolen.

• Put a Google Alert on your name. Search engines will automatically email to you your name if it pops up anywhere on the Internet. If you discover public information that could damage your reputation or puts your privacy at risk, contact the source and ask them to remove the information.

• Create strong, complex passwords that are difficult to hack, even for a professional.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Identity Theft Protect Yourself from Income Tax Fraud

Pedophile Tracking Former Jeffersonville, IN Youth Soccer Coach Charged

A Jeffersonville man and former youth soccer coach has been charged in the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl.

Gary Brian Tanner, 36, of the 3900 block of Haystack Drive, was charged Thursday in Clark County Circuit Court No. 1 with class A felony child molesting. The alleged abuse took place from late 2010 to early 2011, Jeffersonville Police Department Detective Isaac Parker said. He said the girl only recently reported the abuse to a counselor at her school, adding that is it not out of the ordinary for a child victim to wait significant periods of time to report sexual abuse.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

Parker said Tanner became known to the victim after the child befriended the suspect’s daughter. He said he does not believe that Tanner ever coached a team on which the victim was a player. Tanner is accused of touching the girl multiple times at his home and also raping her in a hotel while traveling for a soccer tournament, WLKY-TV reported.

“To the best of my knowledge he [Tanner] has been in involved in coaching youth soccer for club teams in Southern Indiana,” Parker said.

Tanner coached for the Net Surfers soccer club and formerly was coach at Louisville’s Ballard High School, according to a WLKY-TV report.

During Tanner’s initial hearing in Clark County, Judge Richard Striegel presided and set a $100,000 court-cash bond for his release, according to court documents. Also during the hearing, a not guilty plea was entered on Tanner’s behalf. He is expected to return to the court June 27 for a pretrial conference.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Pedophile Tracking Former Jeffersonville, IN Youth Soccer Coach Charged

Accident Reconstruction 2 Killed in Estill County Crash

Police have released the names of the two people killed in an accident in Estill County Sunday.

The crash happened just after noon on Kentucky 52 near Irvine. Police say 18-year-old Shelby Harrison was driving east on Richmond Road and when she swerved to avoid another car then over-corrected and crossed into the west bound lane. She crashed into an SUV driven by 50-year-old William Neal. Neal was pronounced dead at the scene.

http://liarcatchers.com/accident_reconstruction.html

Neal’s passenger, Ronald Whitaker, died after being taken to the hospital.

“Not long after that we got a phone call from Marcum Wallace that the second person had died at the hospital,” says Sgt. Harvey Baxter with Kentucky State Police.

Harrison was taken to the hospital for minor injuries and her passenger walked away uninjured. All four people involved were wearing seatbelts.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Accident Reconstruction 2 Killed in Estill County Crash

Missing Person Barbara Parchem of St. Johns County, FL

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a missing woman. Barbara Parchem is a 67-year-old, white female, 5’3, 100-lbs, brown eyes, short-brown hair with blonde highlights.

She was last seen wearing a gray “hoodie”, with dark pants and a dark colored shirt.

“I don’t think she walked away. I think she got picked up,” Parchem’s daughter, Lillyann Chavez, told First Coast News. “That’s my personal opinion on that.”

http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html

Parchem did not show up for work this morning which is not usual for Parchem, according to reports.

“She’s very close contact with me and my sister and my brother. Every day contact,” said Chavez. “She’s never not shown up for work. In all the time she’s worked there. If she wasn’t going to be there, she would call.”

No foul play is suspected at this time, however, there is concern for her welfare based on recent medical events and family statements.

“This is unusual beyond norm for her,” Chavez added. “There’s a puzzle and the middle piece of that puzzle is gone.”

Chavez said she wanted to clear up information online she said was inacurate.

“She’s not been found. The back yard was not covered in blood. There’s been no ransom, suicide, any of that. Nobody knows nothing,” Chavez explained.

One of Parchem’s other daughters, Christina De Russo, told what she would say to her mother Sunday.

“I would tell her I love her. That we all love her and miss her and we just want to make sure she’s safe,” she said as she cried. “And we want her home.”

If anyone has had contact with Parchem please call 9-1-1 or the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office immediately.

If anyone has had contact with Parchem please call 9-1-1 or the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office immediately.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Missing Person Barbara Parchem of St. Johns County, FL

Wrongful Death Family Devastated, Las Vegas Coroner Ruled Death Undetermined

The family of a woman found dead in a dumpster was shocked to learn the Clark County Coroner’s office wasn’t able to determine a cause of death for the 28 year old.

For the last six weeks, Eric Newman has been waiting on the coroner’s office to determine how his sister Josy Butler died, after she was found stuffed in a duffel bag and tossed in a back alley dumpster near Craig and Nellis boulevards in February.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Detectives initially declined to rule Butler’s death as a homicide as they awaited results of the toxicology reports.

This week he was told Butler’s cause of death is permanently undetermined.

“I just don’t understand how somebody can just die for no apparent reason.” Newman said. “It was hard for me to take… I was up 24 hours straight just crying.”

Newman said he ran through a long list of possible outcomes, but he never predicted that would get no results.

Newman says one thing is for certain; his sister didn’t end up dead in the trash bin on her own.

“Someone definitely put her in there, and definitely got rid of her.”

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Wrongful Death Family Devastated, Las Vegas Coroner Ruled Death Undetermined

Wrongful Death Jessamine County Man Found in Home

Autopsy results show a Jessamine County man found dead inside of his home on Elm Fork Road Friday died from multiple gunshots, leading the Sheriff’s Department to label this a “homicide investigation.”

A family member discovered the body of 49-year-old Dale “Monty” Burgess inside of his bathroom around noon Friday. Sheriff’s deputies called the death “suspicious,” and remained on the scene into Friday night investigating.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Deputies told LEX 18 that they have 2 or 3 “persons of interest” in the case, but so far no arrests have been made.

If you have any information, contact the Jessamine County Sheriff’s Department.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Wrongful Death Jessamine County Man Found in Home

Private Detective Body Found in Private Lexington Lake

A decomposed body was pulled from the water in Lexington Saturday afternoon. It happened at a private fishing club off of Richmond Road. We spoke to the groundskeeper who made the discovery.

Part of David Smoot’s job at the Ellerslie Fishing Club is to check for anything out of the ordinary. “Just checking the lake, trespassers, things like that,” says Smoot. Late Saturday afternoon, something caught his eye. “A pair of tennis shoes floating next to each other was definitely a clue in a sense,” remembers Smoot.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Smoot was hoping his gut instinct was wrong. “My first inclination was I hope it’s not what I think it is,” says Smoot. He then started to pull whatever it was out. “I checked it, put it immediately back in the water and called police.”

Police removed the body but it was so badly decomposed they weren’t able to tell if it was a man or a woman or how long it had been there. “I would say quite a while, it did have a large winter jacket on.”

The Ellerslie Fishing Club is the 3rd oldest of it’s kind in the country. It’s a popular spot off Richmond Road, but not for activity like this.

“We still we do have trespassers at times, but most of the time they’re here to look to fish or to maybe camp out or something,” says Smoot.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , | Comments Off on Private Detective Body Found in Private Lexington Lake

Pedophile Tracking Western PA Man Faces 15 Years

A western Pennsylvania man faces a prison sentence of at least 15 years after pleading guilty to secretly video recording his sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in 2009.

Fifty-four-year-old Timothy Eugene Shearer, of Avonmore, entered the guilty plea Thursday before a federal judge in Pittsburgh who will sentence Shearer on Aug. 7.

Shearer faces 17 charges in state court, including child rape and indecent exposure, involving the same girl and a 4-year-old boy.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

Federal prosecutors say Shearer began molesting the girl when she was 5 or 6 but had denied having sex with the girl when police seized a laptop computer, cameras and other equipment from his home in September.

Federal authorities filed the child pornography charge after Shearer’s relatives found a tape labeled “Wildlife 3” that contained the assault on the girl.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Pedophile Tracking Western PA Man Faces 15 Years

Private Detective Lexington Woman Alive After Having Throat Cut

A Lexington woman says she’s lucky to be alive after being attacked early Saturday morning. Patricia Lancaster says she was left for dead when a man cut her throat in her own bed.

Lancaster has about a dozen stitches on her neck, she says, from the knife of her upstairs neighbor, Chalres Bynum. “If he would have cut two more centimeters, I would not be here today,” says Lancaster.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

Lancaster was up around 4:00 Saturday morning in her Kees Road apartment. She says that’s when Bynum walked in, took her to her bedroom, got on top of her and told her not to scream. She says he eventually cut her throat. “To be honest I didn’t feel it at first. I didn’t realize it until I saw my shirt covered in blood,” remembers Lancaster.

Police picked up the suspect, Charles Bynum, and charged him with burglary and assault. “He cuts my throat and leaves me for dead and he’s sitting in jail under 15,000 really?”

Lancaster believes the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. She plans on showing up for Bynum’s court appearance in hopes a judge will raise the his bond. For now, she’s staying elsewhere with her boyfriend.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , | Comments Off on Private Detective Lexington Woman Alive After Having Throat Cut

Pedophile Tracking Phoenix Man Arrested

A longtime Phoenix Parks and Recreation employee first accused of sexual misconduct with three underage boys 12 years ago was fired Thursday following his arrest over the weekend on suspicion of the acts.

Arthur Rey Juarez, 42, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of one count of sexual conduct with a minor, three counts of molestation of a child, two counts of sexual abuse and one count of attempt to commit molestation of a child, according to Phoenix police.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

His bail was set at $150,000.

The boys were 13, 14 and 15 years old at the time of the incidents, which took place from 1995 to 1998, police said.

Police spokesman Trent Crump said Juarez met the teenagers through his job. All of the incidents occurred in Juarez’s Phoenix home, police said.

Crump said there was no indication of additional allegations, but the investigation was ongoing.

Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department spokesman David Urbinato said Juarez was hired as a recreation leader in 1988 and worked part-time throughout his tenure.

Juarez was fingerprinted and underwent a background check in 1996, according to his personnel record, which only dates back to that year, Urbinato said. His background check came back with nothing to disqualify him from working with the department, Urbinato said.

It was not clear whether Juarez interacted with children as part of his official job duties. Urbinato said officials were still piecing together “exact details” of his job responsibilities, but a 1997 performance evaluation noted that Juarez was “doing a good job with teens and (the) teen council at Maryvale.”

Urbinato said Juarez’s duties over the years included building and field supervision such as turning on lights and monitoring park conditions. He worked 10 years at the Phoenix Center for the Arts as a building supervisor, Urbinato said.

Crump said the allegations were first reported to the Police Department’s child-sex crime unit in 2001, but the case sat dormant until 2005.

“We can’t explain why there was no activity during that time, other than we don’t think the case was getting the detective’s full attention,” Crump said. He said the detective is no longer with the department. Crump added that the Police Department in 2001 never informed the Parks and Recreation Department of the allegations.

In 2005, detectives again contacted the victims, who were reluctant to come forward, Crump said.

The case was reopened this year by the Child Crimes Task Force set up by Mayor Greg Stanton to review old cases to ensure they were properly handled. An internal audit in 2012 showed the department handled cases involving children poorly. The department has so far finished reviewing 972 of the 2,845 old cases, police said. The reinvestigations have resulted in 12 arrests.

Detectives last month re-interviewed the three alleged victims in the Juarez case, leading to his arrest.

At a news conference Thursday at police headquarters, Stanton said: “I am the father of two young children. This is heartbreaking for every parent who has heard about this.

“I am outraged by what I have learned here today about the allegations against a city of Phoenix employee, who has been terminated today.”

Police Chief Daniel V. Garcia said the department takes full ownership of the mismanaged cases.

“This is not the quality of work we want,” Garcia said. “We will review all 2,845 cases. We owe it to the victims to bring them justice and we have to bring these perpetrators to justice.”

He said the department anticipated some “tragic stories” to come forward as a result of the reviews.

Garcia has instituted safeguards to protect future child-sex crime cases, including that detectives now need to have approval from two supervisors before suspending or closing a case. He has also increased the number of detectives to 55 from 27 and increased the number of Spanish-speaking detectives to 15 from five.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS
  • LinkedIn
Posted in Private Investigator Lexington | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Pedophile Tracking Phoenix Man Arrested