Impersonator gets federal prison in debit card scheme

A Florida man caught driving around in Peters and stealing mail last winter as part of an interstate identify theft ring targeting bank customers is headed to federal prison for 21 months.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab imposed that term Monday on Cassio Slowden, 27, of Pembroke Pines, and ordered him to pay $116,000 in restitution, which represents losses sustained by a dozen Citizens Bank and Bank of America customers.

Slowden had pleaded guilty last year to a single count of mail theft after he was caught stealing a debit card from a mailbox in Peters.

Federal agents and police said he was part of a network of thieves operating primarily in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New England that preyed on bank customers.

He and his cronies pretended to be customers. They called customer service and ordered replacement debit cards and PIN numbers. They then enrolled in the U.S. postal service’s informed delivery service in the names of the customers so they knew when the mail would be delivered with the new debit cards. On the day the mail arrived, they pilfered it from mailboxes before the customers got home.

Citizens Bank said that on Feb. 6 of last year, someone called the service department pretending to be four Peters residents, all customers of the bank, and ordered new cards.

That impersonator was Slowden.

Police and U.S. postal inspectors were waiting when he showed up on Feb. 11 to steal mail from a mailbox on Will Scarlett Road and drive away. Police pulled him over and recovered a stolen debit card.

A search of his phone turned up evidence that he was involved in similar schemes here and in other states, targeting more than 100 customers.