Identity theft is the way to rob in 2008. Total scummy move and stealing from their own friends/family makes it even worse. Interestingly, I noticed a lot of blogs commented on Jocelyn Kirsch looks. Definitely more attractive when it's not a mug shot.

A former Center City couple were charged today by federal authorities with stealing the identities of at least 16 people and using them to illegally gain at least $119,000 in cash and merchandise.

 

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U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan today called Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward Anderton "the poster children for identity theft." He said their victims included not just strangers but also co-workers, neighbors and friends.

 

State charges against the two were dropped today in favor of the federal prosecution.

 

Meehan, describing an elaborate, year-scheme during which the pair allegedly donned disguises to withdraw money from bank accounts they created in others' names, said prosecutors will aim to insure Kirsch and Anderton receive 5-year prison terms.

 

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"She's supposed to be graduating college now, and instead she's going to be going down to federal court in a few weeks and entering a plea," Greenblatt said today.

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Kirsch, 22, who left Drexel University in Philadelphia after being charged, faces a mandatory minimum of two years in prison, with a potential of more than five years.

 

 

Authorities allege the couple victimized at least 16 people - including friends, co-workers, neighbors, fellow students, bar patrons and others - by stealing their identities and credit card information for a year beginning in November 2006.

 

"These defendants helped themselves to the financial viability of their friends and co-workers, reinventing ways in which to victimize those who had trusted them, for little more than their own entertainment," Meehan said today.

 

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Police said the fraud enabled the couple to finance their $3,000-a-month Rittenhouse Square apartment and luxury trips to Paris, London and Hawaii.

 

City police released copies of the couple's vacation photos after their arrest in December. At that time detectives also showed off a table full of fake ID cards and driver's licenses they had seized, along with computers, printers, a machine that makes ID cards, $17,000 in cash and several neighbors' keys.

The vacation photos show the couple swimming in the Caribbean, dining at upscale resorts and kissing under the Eiffel Tower. Kirsch is often seen posing in bikinis and slinky outfits.

 

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Police started investigating after a neighbor was told she had a package waiting from a British retailer - an order she had never placed. Suspecting identity theft, she called police, who staked out the UPS store and caught Anderton and Kirsch.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080512_Jocelyn___Eddie__Poster_children_for_ID_theft.html 

vs.