PrivacyGuard, The credit reporting, credit score, and identity theft protection services provider has released the results of a survey aimed at observing and identifying a number of online behaviors that consumers willingly partake in that could put them at risk of fraud and identity theft.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

The survey identified five behaviors and asked a panel of 1,000 consumers whether they had performed any of the following potentially jeopardizing behaviors:

Made a purchase over Public WiFi
Made an online purchase using a payment method other than a credit card
Ordered an item from a website they were unfamiliar with
Had overlap in the passwords they use for online accounts
Had their billing info stored at more than 10 eTailers (or not know how many sites had their billing info stored)

Based on the results of the survey, a majority of consumers (more than 66 percent) participated in at least two behaviors that put them potentially at risk. Even more alarmingly, less than 6 percent of consumers were exhibiting safe behaviors in all the five categories.

“Online fraud and identity theft can never be completely prevented, but there are a number of simple steps that consumers can take to make it harder for thieves to operate,” said Vin Torcasio, director of Product for PrivacyGuard. “Our research indicates that a huge number of consumers could be doing more to be better protected.”

Of the behaviors identified, more than 60 percent of consumers acknowledged having an overlap in their online passwords, shopping at an unfamiliar website and using something other than a credit card for online purchases.

Regularly checking your credit report and monitoring your credit scores can work to identity signs of identity theft and fraud. Credit monitoring can detect and alert you to certain changes in your credit files across the three major US credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.

Kentucky State Police initiated a criminal abuse investigation after a Fleming County toddler was sent to the hospital with an apparent brain injury.

Police say the 17-month-old boy was found unresponsive at a home around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night. He was sent to the hospital with what investigators are calling a possible brain injury.

The boy has been under his foster parents’ care since June, police say, and that there are other children living in the home.

http://liarcatchers.com/contact.php

State Police are still investigating the details of the situation, but say it does not appear to be an accident. They say the story the foster parents have told police is not consistent with the boy’s injuries.

The one-year-old has undergone surgery and is in critical condition, according to police.

No charges have been filed at this point.

 Homicide investigators in Humboldt County have recovered the body of a San Diego man who was reported missing eight months ago.

Garret Rodriguez, 29, of Ocean Beach, was reported missing by his father on April 25.

FBI agents are working with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department to determine who killed Rodriguez and buried him along a road in Harris, Calif. a mountain community approximately 150 miles west of Redding.

Deputies received a tip about the gravesite on Nov. 30 and they recovered human remains from the site the following day.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

On Tuesday, deputies announced the body was identified as Rodriguez who told his father he was going to Humboldt County to work on a medical marijuana ranch.

Garret told his father the ranch was located in an area known as “Murder Mountain” officials said Tuesday.

Katrina LeBlanc was one of Rodriguez’ best friends and said she thinks money was at the root of his killing.

“Garret is the kinda guy who would give you his last dollar, so if someone wanted his money all they would have had to do was ask,” LeBlanc said.

In Ocean Beach, there wasn’t a place visited Tuesday where someone didn’t know Rodriguez.

A native of the area, he was an avid surfer and fisherman. Friends also described him as an exceptional cook.

LeBlanc was the last person who visited with Rodriguez before he left San Diego for Humboldt County. She said neither of them knew how dangerous the area could be.

While deputies did not reveal the cause of death, they said the coroner confirmed Rodriquez was a victim of homicide.

Anyone with information about this case is requested to contact lead Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.

Kentucky State Police arrested 25-year-old Bradley Shearer, of Scottsville, on charges related to child pornography.

Detectives said they began investigating in July after they discovered a suspect sharing images of child sexual exploitation online. The majority of the images depicted the sexual abuse of children who were less than 14 years of age, police said.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

Shearer was charged with 20 counts of possession of matter portraying a sex performance by a minor, first offense. He was taken to the Allen County Detention Center.

Additional details can be found at http://www.kentucky.com/2013/12/17/2993170/lexingtons-most-wanted-dec-18.html

A teen pleaded guilty for his role in a Jessamine County murder.

Cody Goforth was 17 when he was involved in the shooting death of Pasqual Hernandez.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

Police say Goforth and George Martin tried to rob Hernandez, but ended up shooting him in the neck. Both men were arrested six days later.

Goforth’s sentencing is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

The disappearance of a 9-year-old girl later found strangled and dumped in a trash bin was reported in a 911 call by the man now charged with killing her.

Authorities say Jerrod Metsker, 24, was the last person seen with Reann Murphy at the trailer park where they lived in Wayne County, southwest of Akron. On Monday, a judge ordered him held in jail on a $1 million bond on an aggravated murder charge.

http://liarcatchers.com/wrongful_death.html

The girl’s body was found in a trash bin early Sunday. There have been no findings on whether she had been sexually assaulted, sheriff’s Capt. Douglas Hunter said Tuesday.

In the 5½-minute 911 call provided by Hunter, a caller identifying himself as Metsker said Reann was missing from their Smithville trailer park and people were searching for her late Saturday.

When the dispatcher answered, the caller responded, “Yes, we have a missing person at Akron Road, um, the trailer park in Smithville, Ohio.”

“Everybody’s out searching for her and we can’t find her,” the caller said.

Asked for details on the child’s address, the caller, breathing heavily, responded, “Could you send a unit out?”

“Who’s missing?” the dispatcher asked.

“A little girl, Reann,” the caller said.

The caller didn’t know Reann’s age and, asked what she was wearing, said he couldn’t take the wireless phone from his mother’s place.

Asked his name, the caller responded: “My name is Jerrod. I had a, um, a knock at my door and basically … “

“What’s your last name, Jerrod,” the dispatcher prodded.

“Metsker.”

Investigators with the Wayne County sheriff’s office described Metsker as a family friend and neighbor. Hunter said Metsker has a “diminished mental capacity,” but he wouldn’t release information about a specific diagnosis.

People who live in the trailer park said Metsker would play outside with the neighborhood children and built a playhouse out of blankets alongside his home, where he’d spend time with youngsters less than half his age.

The girl’s mother was at work Saturday afternoon while she was at home with her mother’s live-in boyfriend, Hunter said. She went outside to play in the snow and was with several other children in the trailer park’s courtyard, but the others went home, leaving Metsker alone with her, he said.

A Hardin County man has been indicted for rape of a distant female relative.

Keith Patterson, 51, is charged with first degree rape of a child younger than 12.

According to the police indictment, Patterson is accused of having sex with the child between Jan. 2008 and January of this year.

http://liarcatchers.com/pedophile_tracking.html

Investigators say a friend of the victim told her parents about the relationship, and they reported it to police.

Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Perrye Turner, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and John E. Lucas, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Inspector General, jointly announced today that a home builder from Georgetown, Kentucky was sentenced to 69 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than a million dollars in loans from a Frankfort bank.

http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove sentenced 59 year-old Lee C. Tevis for bank fraud, a false loan application, aiding and abetting bank embezzlement, and aggravated identity theft.

In August 2013, after a five-day trial, a federal jury convicted Tevis of the offenses and acquitted him of an additional conspiracy charge.

Evidence at trial established that, beginning in 2006, Tevis fraudulently obtained loans from American Founders Bank (AFB) by setting up bogus corporations in the names of other people to bypass loan limits, while constructing a house.

The evidence further establshed that Tevis used some of the loan money, which the bank intended to be used to fund a home in Frankfort, to pay off his personal loans and debt on other construction projects.

According to trial testimony, when Tevis reached loan limits established by the bank, he set up a bogus corporation in the name of his company’s foreman, an illegal alien, in order to obtain more loans. After fraudulently qualifying for the loans, Tevis used the Social Security number of the foreman’s 5-year-old son to pass the bank’s credit check.

Tevis fraudulently received $1,095,000 in loans from the bank, according to the evidence at trial. The bank eventually foreclosed on the home for which Tevis received the loans and suffered a significant financial loss.

Additionally, Jim Tate, the AFB president who approved the loans for Tevis, pleaded guilty to bank fraud and received a sentence of 36 months in prison.

Under federal law, Tevis must serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the FDIC-OIG. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Sparks and Jim Arehart represented the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this case.