NASHVILLE, Tenn. -
The U.S. Secret Service and Postal Service have joined forces with Metro police in searching for members of a crime ring that set up shop in Nashville last month.
Lt. Grant Carroll of Metro's Property Crimes Unit told Nashville's News 2 the group wrote counterfeit checks to rent office space on 4th Avenue North.
"They went through the process of posting an ad on Craigslist contacting people and having them come in for interviews," Lt. Carroll said, adding, "Then they'd bring the people in as employees even though this was a dummy corporation."
The group opened the business as Western Radiographics Medical Supply.
In addition to the office space, Lt. Carroll said the group produced business cards, letters of employment, in addition to a Web site and phone number.
According to Lt. Carroll, the group paid particular attention to keeping the 10 new so-called employees from running into each other.
"As part of their employment, they'd have them go out and buy equipment for the company using counterfeit checks, such as commercial copiers and workout machines for a gym to a central location which was a storage facility where they would place the items," he said.
Carroll said the crime ring managed to purchase $56,000 worth of equipment and postage stamps.
Police said they were notified after an employee became suspicious.
Detectives found the office space empty but recovered around $42,000 of the stolen equipment.
"This is one of the most elaborate job scam cons that we have seen take place in Nashville," said Carroll. "They put a lot of work into this, the put in a lot of effort and what it all boils down to, because of the great work the detectives did, they didn't get very much in return for all their effort."
According to Carroll one employee lost around $6,000 of their own money while the USPS lost $8,000 in postage stamps.
