Worst Person of the Week: Karen Tucker, Wedding Fraud Mastermind

Welcome to the highly acclaimed “Worst Person of the Week” post exclusively on the ITAC blog. Each week, we like to expose the underbelly of identity theft and fraud and highlight — in our opinion — the worst person, which are often folks who dupe the most vulnerable and unsuspecting. This week, we found a story that will certainly capture the attention of anyone who has planned their most special day: a wedding.

Karen Tucker, of Pittsburgh, was arrested this week and charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. What did she do? Federal authorities say that she defrauded hundreds of wedding-industry vendors who registered for a heavily advertised bridal show. Tucker and an uncharged co-conspirator pretended to be a company called The Boston 411 that heavily promoted a bridal show that was supposed to take place on the weekend of March 5. Tucker and her co-conspirator claimed in advertisements that thousands of would-be brides and grooms planned to attend the show, which was a lie.

While Tucker did not directly target brides to be with this scam, the fact that she tried to dupe many companies involved in the wedding industry made us want to elevate her to the “worst person of the week.”

So, to you Karen Tucker, while you are serving jail time (up to 20 years), you can comfort yourself in knowing that you are the “wost person” of the week. Congratulations.