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Wrong mail address leads to alleged fraudulent use of ATM card
A woman has been indicted in federal court for allegedly using another person’s Automated Teller Machine card 46 times to fraudulently withdraw $2,300 from the real owner’s personal savings account at Bank of Guam.
The indictment charged Esperanza E. Ellis with bank fraud.
At her initial appearance hearing on Monday, Ellis, through counsel Bruce Berline, pleaded not guilty.
U.S. District Court for the NMI Magistrate Judge Heather L. Kennedy set the jury trial for June 23, 2014.
Assistant U.S. attorney Ross Naughton stated that the U.S. government would not be asking for the continued detention of Ellis.
Kennedy ordered that Ellis be released on her own personal recognizance with some conditions.
The judge unsealed the case.
According to the indictment, a person by the initials S.M., residing on Saipan, held a personal savings account at Bank of Guam.
On June 29, 2012, while filling out paperwork to update her account information at the bank, S.M. inadvertently wrote down her Saipan mailing address as P.O. Box. 504858.
As a result of writing the incorrect mailing address, S.M.’s mailing address for Bank of Guam purposes became P.O. Box 504858.
A new BOG ATM payment card in S.M.’s name was mailed to S.M. at P.O. Box 504858. Around the same time, a new personal identification number, corresponding to S.M.’s new ATM card, was mailed to S.M. at P.O. Box 504858.
S.M. received neither the new ATM card nor the new PIN, because she did not have access to P.O. Box 504858.
P.O. Box 504858 was registered to Ellis, according to the indictment.
Beginning July 15, 2012 until Sept. 19, 2012, used S.M.’s ATM card and PIN 46 times to fraudulently withdraw funds approximately $2,300 from S.M.’s savings account at BOG.
The indictment did not mention how authorities discovered the fraud.
