Thieves fleece couple

Sarah Muslin and her husband deposited their paychecks on a Friday night and planned on using the money to pay their bills Monday morning.

But a pair of total strangers thousands of miles away had other plans for the Muslins' money.

They used her master debit card number to buy themselves airline tickets from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and racked up two other purchases.

"We woke up on Monday morning with 83 cents in our bank account," Muslin said. "I'm not sure how it happened. I had my card with me the whole time."

Another account at the same bank was pilfered the same weekend. No one is sure if the two incidents are linked, Muslin was told.

Muslin, 23, works as a cashier at Fred Meyer in Wasilla. She said she had used the debit card, which withdraws money directly from her checking account, to make a few purchases over the Internet.

The same day she discovered 83 cents in her bank account, Muslin had to take the day off work to figure out what to do about the loss of $1,600.

She called the bank to report the fraud, called Southwest Airlines and US Airways to find out who made the ticket purchases, and filed a report with Wasilla police.

By bank closing time the same day, her money was back in the account.

Yet the two thieves couldn't be caught -- or charged with a crime, she was told.

"Typically what happens in credit card fraud," said Wasilla police investigator Jean Achee, "is that the victim makes out OK because they will get reimbursed. The vendors themselves that take the information from the credit card are the ones who usually lose the most."

Ironically, online companies that accept credit card payments are the ones who often leave loopholes for fraud to take place, Achee said, by not offering a secure site. Many do not take enough information from the consumer.

Big companies with good security assign a nine-digit Internet Packet (IP) number and a padlock icon shows up in the corner.

"Number one: you need to make sure you are purchasing something from a secure site," Achee said.

In the case of the two thieves who vacationed in Fort Lauderdale on Muslin's money, the names used to make the reservations might not be real names. There are no addresses linking them to their purchase. And it's not likely they would stand trial for charges in Alaska even if they were caught.

Alaska police do not have jurisdiction to make arrest in other states, Achee said.

In short, they got away with it.

"It's still a good idea to report it to the police," Muslin said. "Now they have a record of it and someday it might come back on these people."

Even information from tossed away ATM slips can be used by potential thieves, Muslin learned.

Muslin said she wants others to hear about what happened to her. "I tell people to be very careful. If they're doing this to us, they're probably doing it to others."