A 28-year-old man who went on an identity-theft crime spree in Santa Clara County, including in Palo Alto, pleaded guilty on March 22 to numerous criminal counts, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday, March 29.
Francis Humes of Monterey accepted counts of unlawful use of personal identifying information, grand theft, vehicle theft with a prior conviction, second-degree burglary, possession of methamphetamine and forgery. He also admitted to an aggravated white-collar-crime enhancement and an enhancement for committing crimes while out on bail. He will be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Humes went on an identity-theft crime spree in Santa Clara County from July to November 2010, according to the DA’s office.
Using victims’ information, he created fake California driver’s licenses, passed fraudulent checks, opened fraudulent credit card accounts, illegally accessed victims’ credit card accounts and fraudulently rented hotel rooms.
He used an assumed identity and leased a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz from the Hertz Rent-A-Car in Palo Alto, said Jennifer Deng, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case.
The crimes occurred while Humes was out on bail, awaiting sentencing on another identity theft case, the DA’s office said.
When Humes was apprehended for his new crimes, police found with him numerous false identifications in various stages of production, stolen mail, stolen checks, a stolen laptop and methamphetamine. They also found the Mercedes.
“Mr. Humes was a sophisticated identity thief,” Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Deng said. “However, thanks to the dedicated efforts of law enforcement, identity theft will not pay in Santa Clara County.”
Humes is due to be sentenced on May 8, 2012, in Department 24 of the Santa Clara County Superior Court. The case was investigated by the Palo Alto Police Department, Santa Clara Police Department, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Campbell Police Department, and REACT, a Bay Area high-technology crimes and identity theft task force led by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
The guy has been convicted. Don’t we deserve to see his mug shot now?
Ten years in prison is not quite enough for a guy who ruined the credit of many, many people. If he stole ten identities, this sentence is just a year for each person that he impersonated.
And, I agree that his publicly posted image should be a part of the shame.
> “However, thanks to the dedicated efforts of law enforcement,
> identity theft will not pay in Santa Clara County.”
Without more information, this claim is just self-serving, and can not be proven.
However, the SCC DA’s Office does provide some information that folks should heed, and set up a personal information inventory, and keep in both on their computer, and in paper format:
http://www.sccgov.org/portal/site/scc/chlevel3?path=%2Fv7%2FSCC%20Public%20Portal%2FLaw%20and%20Justice%2FCrimes%20and%20Other%20Violations%2FIdentity%20Theft
Does the 3 strikes law apply?
A better attorney would have gotten him off with an insanity defense: multiple personality disorder.
Seems like a confirmed criminal. The time in prison doesn’t seem all that much, unless he is rehabilitated in some fashion. Seems like he will get out and go back to this, just maybe be a litte more sophisticated in his criminal actions to try to evade the law?!
I am very careful and knowledgeable, shred everything with personally identifying info, etc., yet I had partial identity theft twice and without getting into the entire stories, I assure you these were horrible experiences that greatly inconvenienced me.
We normal, NON-criminal citizens are now forced to be even more vigilant – and constantly check our online bank accounts for accuracy and to ensure no breach or issue has occurred. The burden is on normal folks. I do not have full confidence in merchants and vendors, banks, etc. that hold our private info.
The idea that your credit card company will reimburese you, etc.,is minimal compared to the horror of discovering (on eve of travel, for example) that your card is SHUT DOWN and your bank did NOT phone you — you are not at fault, but discovered this by logging in online and checking up on things and then having to race to try to clear things up. Then you need to request a new card and get it expressed to you (at YOUR expense) — oh, don’t let me get started — this was the easier of the cases by far.
There was just some brief news item on the radio breezily stating that thousands – millions? of people who have MasterCard or Visa cards may have had their personal info “compromised” and possibly misused or stolen. Some intermediary-type-financial-processing vendor was named — didn’t recognize the name — We need much better security and accountability from vendors at all levels.
Don’t underestimate how scary and horrible this experience (being a victim) is unless you have experienced it.
update: “Global Payments, which processes payments, discovered the breach” (just on the radio news) — of the MasterCard and Visa card customers and their info —
Who ARE these people?
We need better security measures from industry and government for our personal data — from medical to financialbanking/investment to employment to tax —
> update: “Global Payments, which processes payments, discovered
> the breach” (just on the radio news) — of the MasterCard and
> Visa card customers and their info —
Not much has been revealed about this incident, and much information probably won’t be released either. This makes it frustrating for all, since there is no easy way for the public to understand how these breaches occur, or if there is any way to ever secure data.
One straightforward thing that could make things safer is to have a federal law passed that mandates that all customer information would have to be stored in an encrypted format. At a minimum, people breaking into computers would not be able to do anything meaningful with personal data, since there were be nothing that could be used unless they also managed to steal the encryption code/keys too.
Unfortunately, Congress has never expressed much interest in data breaches. They have outlawed unapproved computer access–but those laws don’t seem to stop people from entering, and stealing, data with little consequence.
Corporations might take machines with customer data off of the Internet (or any other data network access). But this is not something that Congress would ever likely require.
Congress could also increase the limit of liability that people could sue for, if their information was lost/breached/given away/etc.
Solutions start with our elected representatives, for increasing personal information in a systemic way.
Again, a former mid-towner speaking here…
Two simple words here LIFE LOCK. It’s the best $15 a month you’ll ever spend, and these guys are vigilant with email alerts.
Prepaid Legal $12a month is a close second (I started mine in 1984—it’s more now I think).
As in all of life, keeping a low profile is always best.
My wife and I have a series of credit cards with low limits ($1,000 to $2,000) which we pay off monthly and monitor.
These bad guys (This guy is pictured on my screen BTW)I’m certain are looking for high credit limits to hit first and often.
I know from my overseas travel back in the 1970s that travel in Europe requires a lot of credit (card line of credit) or cash so to pay for the large amounts we spent we took travellers checks denominated in the country(s) we were to visit. No fees for changing currency either while there.
I monitor my 2 checking accounts every day.I figure everyone should.
Yes, I have been a victim. I had a check book stolen from my car but the credit union covered every single bad check. I was out a bit of heartache/headaches.
Now, I never carry more than one check in my wallet out of the house. Never a checkbook. Obviously, 3 or 4 is fine if one is going on a spending spree.
Also, we only have our first initials and last names on the checks now. No address or phone. Fine for paying bills. No problem at local merchants I know personally.
Also, NEVER NEVER write your full credit card number on any check you send in to pay a credit card. LAST 4 digits are plenty! The CC companies can easily ID us, but those who handle the check along the way have no idea what are full numbers are.
Fold every check in half that you mail. People look through to see if a check is worth stealing.
Before the amount of the check (line two) write (as example)—-ONLY one hundred dollars. Too hard to alter and not worth the trouble.
Plenty more tips out there.
Please share them.
Yet all those guys who sunk Wall Street and millions of people’s life savings walk free and get bonuses.
What a world we live in.
California really needs to pass an anti-dumpster diving law. Most states have laws that protect people from having their trash sifted by deviant identity thieves.
One person told me that California doesn’t have extensive dumper diving laws simply because of certain “green police” who are can search through your trash in certain municipalities. Does anyone know if this is true?