Two people were arrested Saturday on multiple felony counts of operating a financial forgery lab.
Payton Baker-Wright, 25 and Vincent Scambray, 41 were taken into custody after deputies were called to the Courtyard Marriot Hotel for a report of a drug overdose. Scambray was transported to Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center for treatment of a drug overdose.
The arrest report says deputies saw numerous credit cards, checks and other financial documents scattered on the living room counter and two laptop computers connected to a printer that had a bank statement on the screen. Baker told deputies Scambray had smoked a substance through a straw they believed was heroin but then overdosed so she called 911 for help.
The arrest report says she confessed to deputies that they had purchased fake IDs and credit card information off the dark web and used a reader/writer credit card machine to create phony credit cards and an embossing machine to make them appear real. The report says she told them they also used machines to falsify checks stolen from mailboxes. She estimated they had taken about $50,000 from people using fraudulent means including charging people cash to occupy motel rooms they had paid for with the phony credit cards in both Nevada and California.
Each was charged with seven felonies: possession of credit cards without consent of the owner, possession of documents to falsify them, fraud using a computer, forging credit cards, defrauding an innkeeper, possession of equipment to produce credit cards and possession of a financial forgery lab.
Bail was set at $165,000 for Scambray and at $65,000 for Baker.
