Stolen Credit, Debit Cards Bought Jewelry, Cell Phones For Tampa Man

TAMPA, FL — A 27-year-old Tampa man is headed to federal prison for fraud and identity theft after pleading guilty to stealing and using VISA debit cards and Paypal credit cards to purchase jewelry and cell phones.

Senior United States District Judge John Antoon II sentenced Tyler Deandre Johnson to three years and eight months in federal prison for access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The court also ordered the forfeiture of $40,039, which represents the proceeds Johnson obtained from these offenses.

The federal sentence is to run consecutively to a three-year state prison sentence Johnson is currently serving on four Hillsborough County state cases. In those cases, Johnson was convicted of three counts of fleeing to elude, two counts of armed possession of a controlled substance and one count of felon in possession of a firearm.

Johnson pleaded guilty to the federal charges on Nov. 15.

According to court records, between March 16 and June 15, 2021, Johnson used Green Dot VISA debit cards and PayPal credit cards with stolen account numbers embossed on them to purchase a total of $40,039 worth of merchandise including jewelry and cell phones. Because another person’s name was embossed on these cards, Johnson used fraudulent identification cards to corroborate the names on the debit and credit cards as his own.

This case was investigated by the U.S. General Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Amtrak, the U.S. Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office, the Davie Police Department, the Lee County Sheriff's Office, the Cape Coral Police Department, the Belleview Police Department, the Sarasota Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Synchrony Bank Special Investigations Team.