FDLE: Ex-Comcast employee used dead people’s identities
He sold cable boxes and premium channels
It was such a good deal even dead people signed up for the cable TV service.
Former Comcast contractor Patrick George Forbes was fired in 2015, but he continued to offer to rig cable boxes to get every premium channel and high speed internet access for anyone willing to pay between $20 and $180 cash. He also fraudulently set up Comcast accounts using stolen identities of the living and the dead, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
He claimed to be a Comcast employee in advertising he posted on websites including Offer Up and eBay. He also left business cards at homes. To those who responded, Forbes offered a “special deal” to personally install at their homes the cable boxes that had unlimited access to all channels, according to the arrest report.
These people agreed to give Forbes their personal information believing he was a Comcast representative who needed it to open their accounts. When Comcast caught on and canceled the accounts, several of them tried to contact Forbes and Comcast for a refund but were unsuccessful, investigators said.
Forbes worked for a company contracted by Comcast to provide technicians who would go to homes to install cable and equipment. That company terminated Forbes in December 2015, but he never turned in his badge. He has not been employed by Comcast or any third-party contracted company since then.
A few people knowingly bought illegitimate cable boxes from Forbes for $150 each, but when the boxes eventually broke down Forbes was nowhere to be found.
The Comcast Cable Corporation lost more than $437,000 worth of account fees, cable boxes, modems, DVRs, mobile phones and other equipment between 2014 and 2018 due to the scheme, the FDLE said. The estimate does not include lost revenue from the pirated signals of HBO, Cinemax, Playboy, Pay-per-View, On-Demand and other premium services, the FDLE said.
Comcast alleged at least 800 false accounts were set up and nearly 3,000 pieces of equipment were stolen. Some equipment — containing Forbes’ fingerprints — was recovered when investigators searched a self-storage unit. They also recovered books and spreadsheets listing the names of identity theft victims, living and dead, the arrest reports stated.
Forbes, 39, is facing nearly 50 charges that include organized fraud, identity theft, fraudulent use of the personal ID of the deceased and dealing in stolen property.
Forbes’ wife Jamie Dixon, 34, and Joshua Salgado, 33, are also facing related fraud charges.
According to the arrest warrants, Forbes, Dixon and Salgado would get cable boxes at Comcast stores — or order them
by phone and have UPS deliver them to vacant properties or abandoned homes in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
They would take the boxes and set up the subscriber accounts using their names or the identities of unwitting victims locally and in other states, including 34 dead people, authorities said.
Comcast investigators collected evidence that included surveillance video from Comcast stores that showed Dixon picking up cable boxes and setting up accounts.
Comcast and FDLE also staked out the Pembroke Pines home where Forbes and Dixon live and saw a silver 2012 Toyota Tundra in the driveway with a Comcast/Xfinity logo on the back, the arrest report stated.
Forbes was arrested Wednesday and held in the Broward County Jail on bonds totaling $136,000. Dixon was arrested March 24 on fraud and racketeering charges and released on a $50,000 bond. Salgado was arrested April 23 on fraud charges and was released on $50,000 bond, records show.
The arrest reports did not state how much money the trio allegedly pocketed from the enterprise.