Outsourcing is supposed to lower a company's costs and improve its profits. However, outsourcing can have unintended negative consequences, as shown by a recent identity theft case involving a Rock Hill woman, her boyfriend and the Rock Hill Public Library.

Teneka Hall worked in the human resources department at Igor, a Charlotte outsourcing firm that serves companies nation-wide, including a Chicago-area gas company. She is charged with taking personal information from the gas company customer files and using it to obtain credit cards. The scheme became public when a Chicago resident called to find out why she had received a notice that a credit card in her name had been mailed to an address in South Carolina.

The pair used the public computers at the Rock Hill Public Library to apply for the credit cards, and used them to purchase food, gas and clothing over the course of a month. Police estimate that between 80 and 100 individuals had their identities stolen. Victims are still of the fraud are still coming forward.

Hall and her boyfriend, Tyree McDonald, were charged with aggravated identify fraud, a federal charge. McDonald was also charged with unlawful firearms possession and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Source: Heraldonline, "Police: Woman used Rock Hill library to steal identities," Nov. 8, 2011.