Pair arrested for credit card fraud after alert security agent notices suspicious activity
Pleasant Grove CA Dec 5 2017 Pleasant Grove police arrested a man and a woman after they reportedly attempted to pick up six orders from essential oils company doTerra totaling more than $13,142 from Nov. 24 to Friday.
The orders were reportedly made using credit card information that was hacked from a Nashville company named Z Health, according to police reports.
On Friday, a doTerra security employee called Pleasant Grove police to report that two people were at the Pleasant Grove company to pick up product that was suspected of being purchased with a stolen credit card number. The order was placed online and the pair didn’t have the credit card in their possession.
The employee reported the pair was in a white Ford pickup with a California license plate. After the pickup left the doTerra property, officers executed a traffic stop on it near 1300 West and 100 South. The vehicle reportedly changed lanes without signaling and had a recently expired registration.
During the traffic stop, the man reportedly said his license was suspended and he couldn’t provide any form of identification. He reportedly provided a name of Jose Martinez and an age that didn’t match his stated date of birth. The man said three times he was 25 years old and born in 1986, reports state. He later said he was born in 1991.
The woman, identified as Jessica Contreras, 30, of Rifle, Colorado, said the man’s name was Martinez and he was her boyfriend of two years.
The man was later identified as Armando Mendoza, 31, of Downey, California, reports state.
The doTerra security employee told police that the man had repeatedly picked up packages from the company, beginning with a $160.13 order on Nov. 24. On subsequent days, the man returned to pick up four additional packages averaging $3,245, purportedly on behalf of purchasers in Colorado and North Carolina, reports state. Police contacted a credit card investigator, who reported that the cardholders had reported the fraudulent activity and canceled their cards.
Reports state surveillance footages showed Contreras picking up a doTerra order for a woman who reported that she had not given her credit card information for anyone to make the order. The value of this order wasn’t immediately disclosed.
Contreras declined to speak with police about the incident.
After being advised of his rights at the Pleasant Grove Police Department, Mendoza reportedly said a man in California asked him to go to Utah to pick up packages at doTerra and to return with them to California. The man was to pay $150 for each package.
According to Mendoza, the man sent text messages with the order information that Mendoza would provide to doTerra, reports state.
Police asked about the phone Mendoza reportedly received the messages on. Officers located two phones in the pickup, but Mendoza said he gave the phone with the messages to a woman in Las Vegas.
Mendoza was arrested on suspicion of four third-degree felony counts and one class B misdemeanor of financial transaction card offenses. He was arrested on suspicion of class A misdemeanor providing false personal information with the intent to be another person and class C misdemeanors of driving on a revoked license and operating a vehicle without insurance.
Contreras was arrested on suspicion of third-degree felony financial transaction card offenses and third-degree felony obstruction of justice.
Daily Herald
