Scammers Are Constructing Fake People to Get Real Credit Cards

On a warm day in May, agents from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service descended on a leafy neighborhood in South Carolina and raided the home of a DJ suspected of using fake identities to obtain 558 credit cards from Capital One Financial Corp.

Outside the house in Rock Hill sat a small fleet of luxury sedans that the man, Charles Whitlock Jr., had bragged about on Facebook, writing, “My Car Detail Bill is getting up there, lol.” Inside, investigators found a pair of handwritten ledgers listing names alongside purported Social Security numbers, birth dates, and addresses—tracking some of the identities he allegedly had cultivated since the end of 2013. Prosecutors estimate Whitlock tapped at least $340,000 using the credit cards. He says he’s innocent.