Buffalo Debt Collector Arrested for Identity Theft

A debt collector in Buffalo, N.Y. was taken into custody last week by police after running up nearly $2,000 in charges on a bank account that was used to clear up a debt collection case he had been working.

Antonio R. Speed, a collector at Graham & Noble Associates, was trying to collect a $399 Shell gas card debt from one Mary Reynolds. He convinced Reynolds to settle for a lesser amount and she gave him a debit card number to make the payment. Speed then went on a spending spree on the account that ended with his arrest.

Speed ran up the charges on bowling supplies purchased over the Internet, prepaid charge cards, paid pornography Web sites, and he even made a car insurance payment using Reynolds’ account.

Buffalo police say that Graham & Noble aided in the investigation, according to The Buffalo News.

Repeated attempts by insideARM to contact the collection agency were unsuccessful.

But Graham & Noble owner Omar Smith told The Buffalo News that this was the work of one “rogue” collector. “Once we discovered this was a rogue collector, we were going to do everything to help the consumer,” he told the paper, adding that even after all of this happened, Speed called the agency a couple days ago, “asking about his paycheck.”