Newark Woman Gets Jail Term for Defrauding Elderly Woman

Federal prosecutors say a northern New Jersey woman has been sentenced nearly seven years in prison for a credit card fraud and identity theft scheme that targeted elderly women.

Terrell Brunson also must serve three years of supervised release under the sentence imposed Monday. The 40-year-old Newark resident pleaded guilty to charges of access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors say Brunson operated the scheme from April 2012 through February 2013. She found her victims by searching publicly available directories for the telephone numbers of people she believed were elderly women, based upon their names.

Brunson called them and, pretending to be someone else, solicited their personal information. She used that to add herself as an authorized user to the victims' credit card accounts or to create new accounts.

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