Thousands of credit cards potentially compromised in hotel room scheme, police say
Thousands of credit cards were potentially compromised in a hotel room purchasing scheme worth $250,000, according to federal court documents.
According to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed this week, investigators in Dallas began looking into suspicious hotel room purchases made by Kayla Klutts and Odis Edwards in late August.
The pair would rent one or two rooms in different hotels in Dallas, Fort Worth and other areas and then sub-rent the room to other people at lower fees, the document says. But Klutts is accused of buying those rooms with credit card numbers she bought from a “carding network.”
The network, police said, was a place online where people would buy and sell credit card numbers.
Edwards told investigators they would use the altered credit cards to purchase the rooms. He said he made about $250,000 in fraudulent charges since March or April, the document says.
In September, investigators contacted potential victims to ask if those people gave Klutts and Edwards permission to use their cards. At least one person said no.
On Oct. 11, investigators found that Klutts and Edwards were at a hotel in Carrollton and met them at their room. They confronted the pair about the scheme and Edwards gave them five sheets of paper containing about 69 credit card numbers with various expiration dates and names of other people, the document says.
During that same interview, Edwards later handed investigators a notepad with more than 400 handwritten credit card numbers on them. He also gave investigators five altered credit cards, the document says.
The investigation continued into November, and investigators found more fraudulent credit cards, the document says.
“To date, investigators have determined that Edwards and Klutts were in possession of approximately 1,200 credit card numbers,” the document says.
The complaint doesn’t give details on the locations of the potential victims.
This story was originally published November 18, 2018 at 5:09 PM.
