Tampa Woman Gets Prison Time For Scheme Involving Postal Stamps

Tampa FL

26 July, 2021

3:08 PM

Description

TAMPA, FL — A Tampa woman will spend two years, eight months in federal prison after being sentenced for credit card fraud and identity theft. U.S. District Judge William Jung sentenced Ariel Tillman, 37, to prison Monday. Tillman pleaded guilty on Dec. 3, 2019. In addition to prison time, she was ordered to pay back the proceeds of her fraudulent activities in the amount of $225,271.04. According to court documents, from July through October 2018, Tillman and others carried out a scheme to obtain stolen credit card numbers and used those account numbers to purchase stamps at night from self-service kiosks at various U.S. Post Offices. They then sold the stamps on the secondhand market. During the course of its investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service obtained dozens of surveillance photos of Tillman using counterfeit credit cards to make purchases at post offices in Brandon, Bloomingdale, Riverview, Sun City Center, Ruskin, Temple Terrace, Carrollwood, Tampa, Dunedin, Forest Hills, St. Petersburg, New Tampa and Pinellas Park. This case was investigated by the United States Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Lee County Sheriff's Office.