Man gets prison for credit card scheme, Vegas ticket purchases
A California man who stole credit card numbers and used them to purchase some $500,000 worth of tickets for events in Las Vegas was sentenced this week to five years in prison.
Carl Dewain Jefferson, 36, admitted to fraudulently obtaining over 700 credit card numbers from people by using “unauthorized access devices” from 2014 to 2015, according to a Nevada U.S. attorney’s office press release.
Federal authorities said Jefferson used the credit card numbers to purchase Las Vegas event tickets, then resold them on his website, www.lvshowticket.net, and Craigslist.
“When the owners of the credit cards noticed the fraudulent charges, they disputed the charges as fraudulent and had the charges removed from their accounts,” prosecutors wrote in a 2021 plea agreement with Jefferson.
“However, at that point, defendant had already obtained the tickets from the various vendors, which ultimately caused the vendors to suffer actual loss due to defendant’s fraud,” prosecutors said. “In all, the vendors suffered at least $333,014.15 in total losses.”
In September 2014, Las Vegas police executed a search warrant for two rooms reserved under Jefferson’s name at the Polo Towers in Las Vegas. Police seized a laptop, cell phones, a credit card embossing machine, forged debit cards, and business cards.
Jefferson pleaded guilty to to using or trafficking of unauthorized access devices and aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Judge James Mahan sentenced Jefferson to prison Wednesday followed by three years of supervised release.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.