More credit fraud victims found

This corrects an earlier version of the story.

Detectives have identified 10 more credit card fraud victims of a Newport Beach man who is accused of using his web-related job to collect financial information from more than 800 people, authorities said.

Police have found 13 victims so far, out of more than 800 who allegedly had their credit card numbers stolen by Trevor Hammonds, 46, of Newport Beach, Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

Hammonds created the Catalina Conservancy Divers website in 2005 and saved the credit card numbers of people who used the site to donate to the group through 2006, Sailor said.

There were 816 possible victims; 10 contacted police over the weekend, Sailor said. The lead detective on the case, Bob Watts, is expected to send out a notification letter to the pool of potential victims this week, Sailor said.

“We’re afraid we could have hundreds of victims out there,” he said Friday.

Hammonds had been living in his $2,000- to $3,000-per-month Newport Bluff Apartment Village residence for the last six months and using others’ credit cards to pay the rent, police said.

He charged more than $15,000 on others’ credit cards, Sailor said.

The website Hammonds designed no longer accepts electronic donations, he said.

The Catalina Conservancy was not able to collect electronic donations before 2005, so its “loosely organized” support groups used their own methods, Catalina Conservancy spokeswoman Leslie Baer said. Most organizations, like the divers group that cleaned Avalon Harbor, have stopped collecting donations, she said.

Hammonds pleaded not guilty to 19 felony counts including grand theft, burglary and fraudulently accessing and using credit card information belonging to other people last month. His pre-trial hearing is scheduled for March 26 in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.

The police are still looking for anyone who may be a victim of this credit card fraud. Victims are urged to call Investigator Bob Watts at (800) 550-NBPD or call (949) 644-3799.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.