A California couple will be sentenced in January for using fake credit cards to steal more than $632,000 in cash advances from credit unions and banks in eight states.

Michael Lee Thomas of Oakland and Barbara John Lopp of Stockton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud last week in U.S. District Court in Oakland. Initially, they pleaded not guilty to the felony charge in July 2015.

Although the FBI began investigating the fraud in June 2013, it wasn’t until Feb. 12, 2015, when the couple was arrested at a branch of the $16.3 million Municipal Credit Union in Sioux City, Iowa, where their cash advance scheme drew suspicion from employees who contacted police.

Thomas and Lopp were arrested by local authorities and charged, but their case was transferred to California.

According to court documents, the couple booked a flight to a selected state, rented a car and drove to several financial institutions over the course of a few days. On some of these trips, the couple would allegedly scam $40,000 or more after hitting four or more financial institutions.

In addition to Municipal CU, they also targeted branches of the $7.2 billion Digital Federal Credit Union in Marlborough, Mass., the $612 million Gulf Winds Federal Credit Union in Pensacola, Fla., the $286 million Great Plains Federal Credit Union in Joplin, Mo., the $107 million Focus Federal Credit Union in Oklahoma City, Okla., Chase Bank, and other financial institutions, according to court documents.

Thomas and Lopp took turns walking into branches and sometimes told tellers the cash advance was needed to pay for a relative’s funeral expenses. In addition to the fake credit cards, they also used bogus IDs.

When tellers processed the cash advance request, it was declined. However, Thomas or Lopp then allegedly told the teller there might be a block on the card because they were traveling outside of their normal geographic area. They then asked the teller to call the credit card company.

What tellers didn’t know was that the toll-free number on the fake credit card also was fake, and the person who answered that number was working with Thomas and Lopp, according to court documents.

The individual pretending to be a customer service representative authorized the cash advance and gave the teller a series of instructions, leading the credit union or bank to manually post the transaction to the fraudulent credit card, which is sometimes called a forced post transaction.

This fraudulent transaction was often not discovered, however, until a chargeback notice was later received by the financial institution, according to federal investigators.

On June 27, 2013, Thomas and Lopp fraudulently obtained $24,000 in cash advances from three different Digital FCU branches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Two months later, on Aug. 20, 2013, Lopp walked into a branch of the Gulf Winds FCU and fraudulently secured an $8,000 cash advance, according to court documents.

On Sept. 5, 2014, Lopp fraudulently obtained $19,650 in cash advances from two Kansas branches of the Great Plains FCU.

In addition, on Nov. 12, 2014, Thomas fraudulently obtained $19,700 from two branches of Focus FCU.

According to court documents, Thomas and Lopp also fraudulently stole a total of $39,500 in credit card cash advances from Chase Bank locations in Michigan, New York and New Jersey.

The California couple could be sentenced for up to 30 years in prison.

Instant Insights /

Couple Plead Guilty to Multi-State Credit Card Fraud

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