Credit Card Scammer Hits Ben Stiller, Other Stars

Note to budding identity thieves: To avoid drawing attention, it's probably not wise to ask the bank to keep sending credit cards in the names of high-profile Hollywood stars to your small apartment. Chicago authorities busted a Nigerian man who allegedly stole personal information on the likes of Ben Stiller, David Duchovny, and Paul Haggis, and used it to report lost cards and request new ones, reports the Chicago Tribune.

And guess what? The plan worked, at least for a while. Police say the man used Stiller's card on iTunes and an online dating service, for instance. Citibank officials finally connected the dots when writer-directors Noah Baumbach and Paul Schrader asked for their credit cards to be sent to the same must-be-crowded apartment. "Obviously, the bank has some issues they've got to straighten out," a source tells the Tribune. "The guy calls up with a foreign accent and says: 'Hey, I'm Ben Stiller, I lost my card. Can you send me a new one?' Oh. Sure, why not?" (More identity theft stories.)