Peninsula Man Pleads No Contest to $84K Of Credit Card Fraud

FOSTER CITY, CA – A Foster City man who defrauded a credit card company of more than $84,000 pleaded no contest Tuesday to felony grand theft, San Mateo County prosecutors said Wednesday.

Luis Hernandez-Sanchez, 46, was sentenced to a year in jail and five years of supervised probation.

Hernandez-Sanchez will appear in court again on April 4 to hear what restitution he'll have to make.

Prosecutors said the fraud began in September 2012 when Hernandez-Sanchez opened a Capital One credit card account in his name and then added a phony authorized user.

Hernandez-Sanchez used a fake Social Security number to add the phony user. He paid the minimum monthly amount on the cards so that the phony user could eventually open lines of credit under their own name, but he did not pay the bills on those accounts, prosecutors said.

Because credit card companies don't have a way to verify that a Social Security number matches the account holder's name and other account details, they have no way to hold a person responsible for the unpaid
charges.

Hernandez-Sanchez's scheme ended last September. He has credit for 305 days served, according to prosecutors.

Defense attorney Brandon Douglass, who is representing Hernandez-Sanchez, was not immediately available for comment.

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--Bay City News/File photo