Kissimmee Police Department Detectives Rafael Sanchez, center, and Racquel Lopez, right, try to convince Greg Traynor, left, a tourist and Elvis impersonator from Ireland, to audition for a commercial and subsequently give them his personal identification information.

By Juliana A. Torres
Staff Writer

A pair of professionally dressed representatives from Duarf Productions stood on the corner of Monument and Broadway avenues in downtown Kissimmee Thursday afternoon, stopping people as they passed with a tempting offer.

“Do you want to audition for a commercial?” they asked tourists and local residents alike. “You get $25 just for auditioning, and then we’ll call and let you know if you’ve been selected.”

Fourteen pedestrians were enticed. They filled out an application and wrote in their bank account number so the $25 could be deposited directly to the account. They were directed to a table in front of a white van, where another Duarf Productions representative asked them for their driver license and their Social Security number.

And then they climbed into the white van for their audition. Inside, a detective with the Kissimmee Police Department let them know that the whole production had been a setup, and had it not been police officers behind the operation, they would have been victims of identity fraud.

“It’s so easy to hand over your credit information very, very quickly and then you’re caught,” Greg Traynor, a tourist from Ireland, said after he realized he had been duped into handing over all of his identification information. “A lot of people when they’re on holiday and, well, they’re in a good, happy mood and they don’t think too much about stuff like that. They’re sort of like, ‘Aw, come on, I’m not going to get ripped off. This is downtown Kissimmee.’”

Many pedestrians just refused the offer and walked away, but 14 people filled out an application for a commercial with Duarf, which is “fraud” spelled backwards. All but two handed over their driver license number and 10 gave out their Social Security number along with it.

“Sometimes greed takes over their thoughts and that’s when they start giving out too much information,” Det. Rafael Sanchez, one of the undercover solicitors, said. “Getting them to realize that they could be involved with TV, commercials, money in their pocket, gets them interested, and then right away, they start giving out their name, date of birth.”

The department has two detectives working full time in its economic crimes unit. And they’re busy, handling everything from ID theft and counterfeit to check forgeries and fraud, said Economic Crimes Det. Scott Mason.

Most of those working the operation were surprised that it was so easy to potentially con residents out of their personal information.

“I didn’t think we’d get that many,” said Mason, who was the “producer” inside the white van, offering ID theft advice to otherwise naïve pedestrians.

At one point during the operation, a resident called the police to report ID theft going on downtown. Other members of the department who responded to break up the illegal soliciting laughed when they realized who was behind the scheme.

“Suspects would be real brave to do this kind of operation because the cops could easily make contact with them,” Sanchez admitted later. “The more common way to get away obtaining someone’s date of birth and social (security number) is over the phone.”

Mason cited one case he was working in which someone obtained contact information of timeshare owners trying to selling timeshares. “He conned them out of checking account and routing numbers and made his own checks,” he said.

Most of those who were conned said they were glad the police were doing the education campaign.

“I didn’t realize it was that easy,” Kissimmee resident Christie Peters, 25, said. “That scared the hell out of me.”

Her 21-year-old friend, Kristina Jasent, also looked a bit shaken from the experience.

“I’m still nervous,” she said, taking in the potential danger of the situation she had just walked out of. “I’m like ‘whoa, did I just step out of a van?’”