Texas Woman Gets 34 Years for Scamming Teachers

These have been tough times for identity thieves in Texas – a few of them, anyway. Last month we told you about a Wichita Falls man sentenced to 35 years for fraudulently possessing 10 pieces of identifying information that didn’t belong to him. Now, a woman sentenced for identity-related crimes in Bedford, Texas faces a similar plight. As The Dallas Morning News recently reported, a state district judge sentenced 40-year-old Sharon Denise Seeley to 34 years in prison for stealing the identities of thousands of teachers and other school employees.

Beyond the steep punishment meted out to Seeley, who pleaded guilty to charges of fraudulent use or possession of identifying information and credit card abuse, the story brings to light a troubling caveat: She told the court she found the information in a binder that had been thrown in a trash bin used by the Irving Independent School District.

Irving school officials say the Social Security numbers and other identifying information belonging to 3,200 employees was stolen and that at least some of the data was used to obtain phony credit cards and write bogus checks, the newspaper reports. One teacher saw more than $25,000 in charges appear, including a $4,000 diamond ring.

About a dozen current and former teachers showed up in court to tell State District Judge Mike Snipes about the damage Seeley had done to their lives. Stephanie Gelber, who worked for the district for 21 years, said she and her parents and husband, also teachers, were among those victimized. She described the constant calls from bill collectors.

“I had created a spotless credit rating,” Gelber said. “When we bought our home, people said we've never seen a rating like that. She destroyed my rating that I worked very hard to build.”

Before she was sentenced, Seeley apologized to the teachers and said her methamphetamine addiction drove her to crime. She also said she knew little about the accomplices with whom she says she worked throughout the scheme.

To shore up its data security, the district has hired a new records manager. It’s also evaluating 103 cases in which victims have asked the district to compensate them for “time spent repairing credit reports and for stress-related health conditions,” according to the paper. The district has, appropriately, offered free credit monitoring to victims. Unfortunately, the type of fraud that can result from breaches of such sensitive data can extend beyond credit fraud and into other spheres – in such situations, fraud monitoring can help detect identity fraud outside that realm.