ORLANDO, Fla. – "Johnny Magic," the long time morning radio host of "Johnny's House" on Orlando's, XL106.7, and co-host Brian Grimes have been targeted by credit card and identity thieves.
Magic said, his credit card account shows roughly $500 in purchases that he didn't make between Dec. 24 and 25 including stops at Home Depot on East Colonial Drive and Kangaroo Gas station on Chickasaw Trail in Orlando.
Magic said the thieves tried to fill-up multiple cars with gas on Christmas Day, and that's when the card was declined.
"What the person did is they actually took my information and made a card just like mine," Magic said.
Bank of America shut down the card and issued a new account number and card immediately after discovering the bogus purchases.
Grimes estimated that the identity theft has already lowered his credit score by nearly 30 points.
Grimes said that in just a few days, the thieves opened credit accounts with five separate bank credit cards, along with a JCPenny card.
"The best they could do was tell me to check the mailbox every day, "Grimes said. "I've alerted the IRS, the Federal Trade Commission and all of the credit bureaus."
Grimes said, he does most of his shopping online and that it is possible that one of his accounts had been hacked.
"Now I'm in the process of alerting my current accounts because I received a call Wednesday that someone tried to access one of my Capital One cards," Grimes said.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 16 million people had their identity compromised in 2012. Bureau spokeswoman Kara McCarthy told Local 6 that the agency is working to tally the 2014 theft reports.
The bureau reports identity theft falls under three factors:
• unauthorized use or attempted use of an existing account
• unauthorized use or attempted use of personal information to open a new account
• misuse of personal information for a fraudulent purpose.
For more information, go to http://www.identitytheftassistance.org/pageview.php?cateid=39