Authoities: Identity theft suspect targeted actor Will Smith

PITTSBURGH - A man still on probation for running up $81,000 in credit card bills in the name of an Atlanta Hawks basketball player is awaiting trial on charges he did the same thing to movie and rap-music star Will Smith. <br> <br> Forty-one-year-old Carlos Lomax of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, was jailed to await trial this fall on charges he used a credit card from a Pittsburgh-area Sears store in the name Willard C. Smith -- the movie star&#39;s legal name -- buy $5,447 worth of items. <br> <br> Federal prosecutors say Lomax used Smith&#39;s Social Security number and other information to obtain the card, but won&#39;t say how he got the data. He is charged with unauthorized use of a credit access device, which carries up to 20 years in prison. <br> <br> Identity theft crimes can be as simple as using another person&#39;s name to open a credit card account or as elaborate as somebody who literally assumes the identity of someone. <br> <br> Lomax wasn&#39;t trying to do that to Will Smith or to Steve Smith, the Atlanta Hawks star he was convicted of victimizing. <br> <br> U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan of Pittsburgh said Lomax opened charge accounts in their names hoping they wouldn&#39;t notice the purchases until it was too late.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/8/201982