NOTE: If you have been a victim of fraud and have lost money, your first course of action will be to contact the financial institutions and/or creditors involved since the Frisco Police Department has no control over restitution or reimbursement.  Most likely, they will require a police report to be filed, which you can do online by clicking the button below. 

The Financial Crimes Unit investigates the following offenses if they physically occurred within the city limits of Frisco:

Fraudulent Use or Possession of Identifying Information (Personal Identifiers used to commit Identity Theft)

• Fraudulent Credit Account
• Fraudulent Utility Account
• Fraudulent Loan Account

This includes the use of your name + date of birth and/or the use of your social security number to obtain some sort of monetary gain or service.

Forgery

• Check Forgery
• Document Forgery (title, lease, etc.)
• Counterfeit US Currency Use/Manufacturing
• Fake Government ID Card Use/Manufacturing

Credit or Debit Card Abuse

• Financial Card Number Used to Make Fraudulent Purchases

Theft

• Bank Funds Theft
• Wire Fraud
• Scams

Mail Theft

False Statement to Obtain Credit

• Dealership Financing Fraud
• Credit/Mortgage Application Fraud

Cryptocurrency Theft

Investigation Process

The confidentiality and privacy involved with financial accounts and transactions make financial crimes difficult to investigate.  Most investigations require court orders be issued before any records can be obtained.  This process alone can take several months, so it is important that you contact the financial institutions and/or creditors involved first before filing your police report.

If the fraud physically occurred outside the city limits of Frisco, you would need to contact the law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction for further investigation.  

• An example would be, you live in Frisco, but someone in California used your credit card number to make a purchase.  We cannot investigate that from here so contact whatever police or sheriff’s department in that jurisdiction.
• Another example would be a collection account was discovered on your credit report from an outstanding utility service address in Houston, Texas.  Again, contact whatever police or sheriff’s department in that jurisdiction.

When you file your police report, please ensure you provide full account and/or card numbers in your report.  Court orders cannot be issued with partial account numbers.  You are also required to provide proof the fraud occurred in the form of account statements, credit reports, check copies, receipts, or anything else that details the fraud.  Financial crime investigations cannot move forward without this detailed information.

Upon approval, your report will be reviewed by a supervisor in the Criminal Investigations Division.  Please be aware not all cases will be assigned to a detective.  Whether or not your case is assigned to a detective depends heavily upon if the offense physically occurred within the city limits of Frisco and if you provided any known suspect or witness information.  If your case is assigned, you will be contacted by a Financial Crimes detective typically by email within five days of them receiving the case assignment.

Fraud Resources

Discovering you are a victim of fraud can be a very stressful time.  We have complied the following steps and resources to help you navigate the problem.  With all fraud cases, please also consider filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov and, if applicable, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at www.consumerfinance.gov 

If your report is concerning an online scam or cyber fraud, please consider filing a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as www.IC3.gov 

Identity Theft

If your report is concerning Identity Theft, you need to immediately freeze your credit.  You will need to contact the three major credit bureaus separately to start this process.  It is completely free, can be done in a few minutes, and can be done entirely online.  You can also do this as a proactive measure to prevent Identity Theft from occurring in the first place for you and your family.

When you place a freeze, it prevents creditors from “pulling” your credit report.  Most paid credit monitoring services notify you after the fact.  Proactively freezing your credit reports is the only way to prevent an account from being opened without your knowledge.  The freeze can be temporarily lifted if you need to legitimately apply for credit and then put right back in place once the legitimate account is approved.

The three major bureaus are listed below.  Please visit their websites and create accounts with them to be able to control your credit report freezes.

www.equifax.com

www.transunion.com

www.experian.com

You can also begin the dispute process if fraudulent accounts have already been opened.  The credit bureaus will most likely require you provide them a copy of your police report for them to begin their internal investigation.  The Frisco Police Department has no control over how they handle their investigations into disputes.  Keep in mind the dispute process varies and can take a few months for some sort of resolution.

There are also secondary credit reporting agencies that you may want to consider opting out of as well depending on your particular situation.  Some examples are PRBC, SageStream, Advanced Resolution Service (ARS), and Innovis.  A simple web search should provide a more comprehensive list of secondary credit agencies for your consideration.

Forgery, Credit/Debit Card Abuse, Theft

Contact the financial institutions involved and close the compromised accounts.  Discuss restitution or reimbursement with them directly.  When you file your police report, be sure to provide copies of the forged checks, forged documents, card transaction details from the merchant, or specific transaction/transfer details for us to be able to follow the money through the financial system.  We must have full account and card numbers, dates and times, amounts, and locations to be able to perform a proper investigation.  The more information you can provide, the more likely your case can be properly investigated.

Cryptocurrency Theft

The use of cryptocurrency itself is a legitimate form of financial transacting but is easily exploited by criminals due to its pseudonymous nature.  Most cryptocurrency transactions are opensource and available for anyone to see publicly on the blockchain, but when cryptocurrency wallet addresses are created, no personal information is needed.  Wallet addresses are random numbers and letters generated by a computer and cannot be tied to an individual person.  There is no bank or central authority that controls cryptocurrency so as soon as the money is sent, it cannot be reversed or recovered.

We can attempt a trace of the transaction but will need the sending wallet’s address, the receiving wallet’s address, the date/time of the transaction, the amount and the hashID of the transaction.  Be mindful that almost all cryptocurrency theft cases are closed for lack of leads and/or jurisdiction constraints.

How Did You Become a Victim?

Your personal identifiers were most likely obtained from any of the various online data breaches that have occurred over the past decade. The contents of those data breaches are for sale on Dark Web marketplaces. This includes your personal identifiers and financial card and account numbers that criminals can purchase for a small fee. 

Fraud cases are typically crimes of opportunity as fraudsters rarely target a specific person.  Most of the time there is no way to determine how exactly your personal identifiers were compromised.

Please visit this website for a more detailed explanation into dark web marketplaces: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/dark-web/