Caught in the act: Crooks dress up as victims in $740G scam, cops say

 New York County DACops say Arthur Franklin orchestrated scam where he and fellow lowlifes - including beauty (below) and a bald guy  - disguised themselves as their victims in the $740,000 ripoff.

New York County DA

A ring of identity thieves made off with $740,000 by disguising themselves in elaborate get-ups - including a construction worker and a doctor - to pose as their victims, prosecutors said Thursday.

"These guys were basically a costume show," said Chief Assistant Attorney Mark Dwyer.

Arthur Franklin, Joseph Simms and Vincent Franklin supervised a cleverly outfitted ring that ripped off the bank accounts of 184 victims in New York and Chicago, Manhattan prosecutors said.  The Harlem men are accused of recruiting pickpockets to swipe wallets and purses, and then paying two workers at a Pennsylvania collection agency to obtain victims' Social Security numbers and telephone numbers from a database.

With that information, authorities said, they rounded up several women and a few men to match the victims' appearance by dressing in makeup, hats, glasses and wigs so they could fraudulently withdraw thousands of dollars from their bank accounts.

Arthur Franklin went even further, prosecutors said.

A sharp-eyed investigator at Chase Bank put an end to the costumed caper after noticing Franklin repeatedly showed up on surveillance videos - sometimes sporting a stethoscope and surgical scrubs and other times wearing an orange hardhat.

"Because most construction workers do their banking in a hardhat," quipped Assistant District Attorney Antonia Merzon.

One of the accused scammers, Carol DiBitetto, was busted in a wig outside a Citibank branch after a clerk noticed the signature on her withdrawal slip didn't match the one on the account.

Another woman, Tina Barboza, was arrested when she tried to buy a designer handbag from Saks Fifth Avenue with a credit card picked up during a pickpocketing.

Yvonne Harris was picked up yesterday morning when she surfaced in Criminal Court to support Simms during his court appearance.

When Arthur Franklin was arrested, authorities recovered more than 200 stolen credit cards, checks, wigs and an orange hardhat from his apartment and car.

The 15 suspects - some of whom treated themselves to spending sprees at Fairway, Best Buy and the Shake Shack - are facing charges that include identity theft, grand larceny and forgery.

Four suspects who have yet to be collared are identified in the criminal complaint by their defining physical characteristic, including a chrome-domed fellow labeled "John Doe Bald Man" and a grinning lady tagged "Jane Doe Wide Smile." 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/13/2009-11-13_caught_in_the_act.html#ixzz0WkRYjwBT