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Posted: 5:58 p.m. Thursday, March 14, 2013
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By Jon Lewis
He's a suspected identity thief and one of his alleged victims tells you how to get to work every morning.
Erkes Green, of Grant Park, is believed to have stolen the names and personal information of more than 150 people in metro Atlanta, Florida and other parts of the country.
One of his alleged victims was WSB's Mark Arum.
Atlanta police tracked down Green after the suspect tried to pass a bad check at a DeKalb County bank.
When they located Green a search warrant for his home turned up dozens of files, a filing cabinet filled with personal information on his victims, a safe and devices he supposedly used to perpetrate his crimes.
One was a keystroke grabber.
"It's about the size of a thumb drive," says Atlanta Police Detective Ken Stapler. "He'd plug into the USB port of a computer and leave it there. It would then capture every keystroke typed into that computer, collecting passwords, social security numbers and anything else."
Stapler tells WSB Green would use the stolen IDs and fill out tax returns in those names.
"Almost every identity that I've found so far, he filed tax returns using the person's social security number," says Stapler. "Then he'd get online and use TurboTax or something like it. If had the person's name, date of birth and social security number, he can make up the rest, put in any numbers he wants and get a refund."
Stapler says the average refund was for between $8000 and $9000. Using Mark Arum's stolen identity Green, allegedly, received a refund debit card for $9716.
Stapler says Green also used the stolen IDs to live in style.
Police say Green twice used stolen identities to purchase a Mercedes Benz, once for $73,000 and the other time for $60,000.
One of the cars was purchased using the name Mark Arum.
Green was in the DeKalb County court to face charges connected to the bad check. He was granted a bond of $105,000 and bailed himself out of jail.
Stapler is still working on building a case against Green. No charges have been filed yet in Atlanta. In addition, the IRS and federal agents are looking into the case.
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