Police: Allegheny Township woman teamed up with man from Ghana to bilk $7K from couple

An Allegheny Township woman is accused of stealing $7,000 from a Texas couple using a fake credit card she got from a man in Africa she met on an internet dating site, according to investigators with the state Attorney General’s Office.

Julie Marie Williams, 35, of Sandalwood Drive, was charged with six felony counts: dealing in the proceeds of illegal activity, theft, identity theft, access device fraud, receiving stolen property and criminal conspiracy.

Williams was charged Jan. 10 and released Jan. 13 from Westmoreland County Prison on a $5,000 unsecured bond, according to court records.

She faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 25 before District Judge Cheryl Peck Yacopec.

Authorities said the investigation was launched in December 2020 when a couple from El Paso, Texas, contacted Allegheny Township police to file a theft report.

The couple told police Williams linked her name to their USAA Visa credit card account and made seven $1,000 withdrawals from Apollo Trust Co. in Apollo between Nov. 16 and Dec. 2, 2020, according to a criminal complaint.

The couple told police they were alerted to the thefts after their credit card was declined when they tried to make a purchase in El Paso, the complaint said.

The credit card company’s fraud division told the couple the security settings for their card had been changed and Williams was added to their account as an authorized user, according to the complaint.

Allegheny Township police Sgt. Daniel Uncapher, who initiated the investigation, obtained a search warrant for surveillance video from the bank that showed Williams, who was known to him, making the withdrawals on seven different days, the complaint said.

A second search warrant was obtained for Williams’ apartment, where police seized 52 items that contained evidence of possible credit card fraud, including electronic devices, bank statements and receipts, according to the complaint.

During a Jan. 4 interview with Uncapher, Williams said she got the credit card from a man named Daniel Asante of Ghana, a West African nation. She said she met him on the Plenty of Fish dating site in 2018, investigators said.

After a discussion with Asante about ways to make money, Williams told police, she received a USSA Visa credit card through the mail bearing her name, according to the complaint.

She told police she made the withdrawals from Apollo Trust Bank because she had an account there and she sent $700 from each $1,000 she took out to Asante using the MoneyGram and Remit payment services, the complaint said.

Williams told Uncapher several other fake credit cards that were confiscated from her apartment were sent to her by Asante and another man she met on the dating site, but those cards were never used to withdraw money, according to the complaint.

Uncapher turned over the investigation to the state attorney general’s office in February to bring in more resources for the case, the complaint said.

State agents obtained search warrants to look at the items confiscated from Williams’ apartment and found photographs on a cellphone showing the fake credit card with her name on it and a second Visa card that was issued to the Texas couple, investigators said.

During an interview with an agent from the Attorney General’s Office, Williams said she was not involved in the process of changing the security settings on the couple’s account or altering the cards, the complaint said.

She told investigators that she had planned to make the withdrawals from an ATM but was told by Asante that it would “mess up the card,” so she got the money in person from the bank, the complaint said.

Receipts for the cash withdrawals that were signed by Williams, along with a copy of her driver’s license, were obtained after executing a search warrant at the bank, police said.

Authorities said USAA covered the $7,000 loss to the Texas couple’s account.