Texas Woman Sentenced in Credit Card Fraud Scheme

BOISE – Brooke Ashley Darby, 29, of Fort Worth, Texas, was sentenced today to 28 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.  Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Darby to pay $15,325.25 in restitution.  Darby pleaded guilty on November 10, 2015.

According to Darby’s plea agreement, she admitted to traveling to Idaho, along with her co-defendant, Charmaine Montgomery, for the purpose of making fraudulent purchases of gift cards and merchandise from retail stores, using stolen credit card numbers encoded onto stock gift cards.  Darby admitted to obtaining the stock debit cards encoded with unauthorized credit card numbers, and making purchases at retail stores on June 23 and June 24, 2015.  In all, Darby admitted that she and Montgomery purchased approximately $13,095.90 in gift cards and merchandise with the fraudulently encoded gift cards.  Upon her arrest, Darby and Montgomery were found in possession of approximately 250 gift cards encoded with unauthorized credit card numbers. 

Montgomery pleaded guilty on December 1, 2015, to committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.  Her sentencing is set for February 11, 2016.

The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Boise Police Department.