A Laurel man has been charged in a scheme to use stolen credit card information to reship stolen laptop computers from across the country to Maryland. Moses Sumo Appram was indicted last week on charges of interstate receipt of stolen goods and false statement in application for a passport, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. He faces up to 10 years for the stolen goods charge and 10 years for the lying on the passport application.
It’s unclear from charging documents where Appram got the stolen credit card and personal identity information, but authorities said he used the information to rent out mailboxes at UPS stores around the country. Addresses were set up California, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Ohio and other states. The mailboxes were obtained using a prepaid credit card, making it nearly impossible for anybody to find the owners, documents said.
The scheme began to unravel in March when a man in Illinois reported his credit card had been used without his authorization to buy two new Dell computers for $2,500.
Police learned that one of the computers was to be shipped to a UPS store address in Chicago, but when they checked on the delivery, the computer was not there. Employees said they received an email from their client asking them repackage the computer and reship it to a UPS store in Laurel.
The probe revealed numerous computer shipments had been rerouted this way. One UPS store in Wisconsin had 30 computers reshipped to Maryland.
Investigators set up surveillance at the Laurel store. They soon learned that Appram drove his Lexus to pick up the boxes of items “on a daily basis” between April and June, the charging documents state.
Federal investigators served a search warrant at Appram’s residence and found several dozen UPS boxes and Dell computers in the name of credit card holders who had reported that their information had been stolen.
Law enforcement officers also seized Appram’s passport during the raid. Several days later he tried to obtain another passport from the State Department, saying he did not know what had happened to his passport.
