EC woman gets probation for making fraudulent credit cards

Dan Holtz, The Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wis.
·2 min read

Apr. 8—EAU CLAIRE — An Eau Claire woman will spend two years on probation for making credit cards with stolen information.

The fraudulent purchase of a washing machine at an Eau Claire store led to the discovery of the crime, police said.

Whitney J.L. Moore, 35, 1518 Highland Ave., pleaded no contest Thursday in Eau Claire County Court to two felony counts of identity theft. Ten additional identity theft charges and a felony count of retail theft were dismissed but considered at sentencing by Judge Michael Schumacher.

Moore was fined $2,180 and must pay $959 in restitution. As conditions of probation, Schumacher ordered Moore not to have contact with Menards stores or possess other peoples' personal identifying information.

Moore received three days credit for the time she spent in the Eau Claire County Jail following her arrest.

According to the criminal complaint:

Moore bought a washing machine valued at $1,000 in late November 2018 at Menards on North Clairemont Avenue.

Menards officials and Eau Claire police determined Moore fraudulently used a North Dakota woman's credit card information to make the purchase. Menards officials alerted police on Dec. 28, 2018, that Moore was in the store.

Moore was searched by police and multiple blank credit cards were found in her pockets. The Visa and Chase cards did not have any number or identifying information on them.

A search of Moore's van netted more credit cards. These VISA cards contained numbers and were listed to other people. Police also found several scraps of paper that had credit card numbers written on them from North Dakota.

Moore said she bought the cards from a man in Minnesota. Moore said she also bought the credit card numbers. She used them to put on blank credit cards.

Moore said there did not actually have to be numbers embossed on a card for it to be useful. She only had to transfer the purchased credit card information to the card's magnetic strip on the back.

Moore said she uses a machine to put the numbers on the card, and confirmed she did this herself at her former Altoona residence. She believed she created about 20 fraudulent credit cards.

During their contact with Moore, authorities seized 11 credit cards that had embossed numbers but no names on them. There were also four credit card numbers with identifying information written on an envelope.