Bowie Restaurant Server Guilty of Credit Card Skimming

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Real estate agents around the county were ripped off by an Annapolis man who created websites that gave fake leads to sales agents, and used stolen credit card information to gain lines of credit, prosecutors say.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Joseph R. Dominici, 29, of Annapolis, on wire fraud charges arising from a telemarketing scheme to defraud real estate professionals around the country who paid to advertise on websites he owned.

In a related case, the indictment notes a separate counterfeit credit card scheme in which Dominici obtained stolen or otherwise compromised credit card numbers from several sources. Christina Price, 22, of Bowie, a server at a restaurant in Gambrills, used electronic skimmers to steal the credit card information of restaurant customers who paid by credit card. Price then provided this stolen customer information to Dominici for use in producing fraudulently re-encoded credit cards.

Dominici and Carlos Ledbetter, 29, of District Heights, an employee of JJ&M, used special equipment to encode the stolen account information onto stored value cards and then used those cards to gain extensions of credit from banks and credit unions.

In the real estate scam Dominici owned and operated JJ&M Enterprises, LLC, an online business based in Annapolis, offering leads on potential homebuyers to real estate professionals. Federal authorities say Dominici registered two websites which he and JJ&M used to conduct business: BuyerHomeSite.com and FreeHomeFind.com.

According to the 14-count indictment, the websites claimed to contain active listings of homes for sale, which potential homebuyers could browse. The websites also told Realtors or loan officers that they could pay $299 a month to become a “preferred expert” in each of the geographic regions that they chose.

The indictment alleges the leads Dominici sent to the real estate professionals contained fake information created by Dominici and JJ&M employees. He made up identities, including names, email addresses and cell phone numbers, say prosecutors, and posted false and “testimonials” from “satisfied” customers on the websites.

As a result of the telemarketing cheme, Dominici allegedly obtained more than $895,568 from real estate professionals. The indictment seeks forfeiture of this amount.

Dominici faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on each of 11 counts of wire fraud in the telemarketing fraud scheme. An initial appearance for Dominici is expected to be scheduled for next week.

For the credit card scam, Dominici faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for conspiring to commit bank fraud; 10 years in prison for access device fraud; and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison consecutive to any other sentence for aggravated identity theft.

Ledbetter and Price previously pleaded guilty to their participation in the credit card fraud scheme. A judge sentenced Ledbetter to six months in prison, and scheduled Price’s sentencing for May 2.

Dominici has pleaded not guilty to the charges.