ALEXANDRIA, Va. ( DC News Now ) — Three men were sentenced for their roles in a conspiracy to cash fraudulent checks and obtain pandemic relief benefits.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) said 29-year-old Deandre “Dre” Merritt – aka Scam Likely and John Adams – schemed to cause stolen or altered checks and use victims’ identity information to fraudulently claim pandemic relief benefits.
The conspiracy lasted from at least May 2020 through January 2022.
Merritt and one other person used U.S. Postal Service (USPS) arrow keys, which are keys used by mail carriers and collectors to unlock USPS collection boxes. They would steal checks from those boxes and create fraudulent checks using unwitting victims’ names, addresses, account numbers and banking information.
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The USAO noted a bank teller would tell Merritt if a check could be cashed, and he would provide his co-conspirators with checks and direct them to the teller.