Other People's Money by Neil Forsyth with Elliot CastroOther People's Money is subtitled The rise and fall of Britain's boldest credit card fraudster. I find it difficult to believe that Elliot Castro really was the biggest credit card fraudster in the UK - there are bound to be worse offenders yet to be caught - but he was certainly trying hard! This book is actually quite a sad tale in many respects. Elliot Castro was very young when he started this life of credit card crime and seemed to be searching for some sort of acceptance or personal validation. Can you ever find meaning in a life by doing wrong? His 'meaning' took the form of blowing extraordinary amounts of money - especially for someone so young. The money would be spent on first class hotels, first class air fare, clothes, fine dining and endless rounds of drinks in parties with strangers. Needless to say, when the police finally nabbed him, there wasn't much in the way of assets to try and reclaim. But worse than all this wasting of money, he wasn't really all that intelligent about how he carried out the crimes. Many of the cards were obtained in his own name and lots were actually delivered to his parents home address. If you have an image in mind of credit card fraudsters being hard to catch because they can hide their identity well, this story will completely destroy that image! Castro was in and out of prison or police custody - in the UK, Ireland and Canada - suggesting that he wasn't exactly a master criminal. Instead, he was a kid out for all he could get. Fast. Oddly, much of the legal trouble he found himself in was created by expedia.com. He would book his travels online through their website, and they would take the hit when the credit card was rejected. This meant that they started to tip off the police in advance of his travels in an effort to stop the losses he was causing them. Much of the rest of his legal troubles were caused by a desire to use his cards at every available opportunity. Reading the book, I was convinced that if he had simply been smart enough to withdraw cash on the cards from ATMs, the police would have had far less information to track him with and therefore, less to be held accountable for. It is for this reason that we question his claim to be Britain's biggest credit card fraudster. A person with greater self control and some extra clarity of thought would have taken far fewer risks and been more calculating. This would have almost certainly prevented many of his legal problems. In essence, this book is only a 'how to' if you plan to get caught on a regular basis! Instead, it is a story of a young man, his insecurities, travel dreams and luxury fantasies. If you happen to be a credit card holder though, then this book is very frightening. The apparent ease with which he was able to cover his tracks for so long shows just how easy some elements of credit card and identity fraud can be. A cautionary tale if ever there was one... To read more book reviews, please also visit:
Have You Read Other People's Money?Have you read Other People's Money? What did you think of the book and story? Share your thoughts or review with us! |