BOSTON -- A Brockton woman was arrested on Nov. 1 and charged with taking part in a scam to steal at least $1 million from the bank accounts of area high school students, according to a report in the Boston Globe.
According to the report, Kenya Nickerson, 25, and several accomplices in the Boston area forced their victims to turn over their ATM cards and PINs by threatening them with violence.
The alleged conspirators would warn the victims not to report their cards missing for three days, during which time they would empty the accounts, said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. The suspects would on occasion deposit stolen checks into the accounts to increase their value, he said.
Investigators also found that some account holders gave their ATM cards to the suspects for a fee and said their cards were stolen so the bank would cover the losses.
Conley said the group stole at least $1 million over a four-year period from the accounts of hundreds of individuals.
Conley described Nickerson as 'a very active player' in the group. A second suspect, alleged to be the ringleader, was already being held on unrelated charges, according to a statement by Boston police. Conley said more arrests were likely.
Boston police detectives arrested Nickerson at her home in Brockton, where they seized several stolen ATM and credit cards, counterfeit money and phony identification papers.
Nickerson, who Conley said was identified through ATM surveillance tapes, pleaded not guilty to charges of larceny, credit card fraud, and identity fraud at her arraignment in Boston Municipal Court.
Conley said an investigation began after Fleet Bank officials reported suspicious ATM transactions to police.
'This is a pretty complex scheme,' Conley said. 'It took a while to piece together the notion that these weren't just ordinary thefts.'
