Scam Artist Cashed In on Trash, Police Say : Crime: Orange man found with credit cards he allegedly obtained by retrieving discarded applications. He and two women also are accused of falsifying checks.

Junk mail may be a nuisance, but just throwing it out can ruin your credit, police warn.

Irvine police arrested William Everly, 31, earlier this week on suspicion of obtaining more than 30 stolen credit cards by rummaging through trash bins at post offices for credit card applications that were tossed out, investigators said.

“We want to alert people that when you get promotional ads or applications in the mail to accept a MasterCard or Visa and if you don’t want the card, you should not just throw it in the trash,” Irvine Police Det. Denny Jenner said. “Someone can come along and pick that information up and send it in and with their address but your name on it.”

Everly also was arrested on suspicion of producing counterfeit checks that he and his friends used on shopping sprees at major department stores, Jenner said.

Everly has been wanted by Irvine police since June on suspicion of depositing stolen checks at an Irvine bank, Jenner said. When police served an arrest warrant at his home in Orange on Wednesday, they discovered more than 30 credit cards embossed with other people’s names and reams of counterfeit checks inside the house.

Also arrested were his girlfriend, Kathy Hill, 36, of Stanton, and Angela Young, 40, of Costa Mesa. Police say both women used the counterfeit checks Everly produced at stores such as Target and Mervyn’s.

“It was a fairly decent operation in the fact that they were able to produce so many different fraudulent checking and credit accounts,” Jenner said.

Of the more than 30 stolen credit cards found, police said Friday that Everly apparently had a credit card with a $10,000 limit that originally was offered to an Orange County man.

“This man didn’t know his credit was being ruined until we contacted him,” Jenner said. “He tried to purchase a car just before the holidays and they didn’t approve his credit application. He couldn’t understand why and it turns out that Everly was just using up his credit.

“A lot of times, people are not aware of it until their credit is ruined.”

Jenner advised that unwanted credit applications should be shredded or torn up in small pieces.

“Everly was even taping them [the torn applications] up to get the account information and then call the bank for funds,” Jenner said.

During a search of Everly’s home, police said they also confiscated stolen driver’s licenses and Social Security cards. The information on the identification cards was used to create the counterfeit checks, Jenner said.

All three suspects were taken to Orange County Jail, where they remain, police said.