NEW ULM — A 50-year-old Gibbon woman is accused of making 109 payment transactions totaling $59,129.40 in 2022, using another woman’s debit card numbers.

A felony financial transaction card fraud charge was filed Thursday against Christina Marie Elbert, 25395 611th Avenue, Gibbon in Brown County District Court. A Zoom court hearing was set for 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 8.

According to court documents, New Ulm Police Officer Tyler Forrest met with a woman Jan. 17, 2023 in the Brown County Law Enforcement Center. The woman said about $20,000 was stolen from her bank account.

She first noticed fraudulent activity, a $900 charge she didn’t recognize on her checking account in March 2022. The victim said she mentioned the charge to her friend, Christina Marie Elbert and was told “don’t you remember giving me that money to help fix my pool?” The victim said she didn’t remember agreeing to give Elbert any money but that Elbert wrote her a check for $900.

The victim said the fraudulent activity was still occurring in January 2023 and that from March 2022 to January 2023, about $20,000 was taken from her account. Total bank statements provided by the victim showed $27,115.66 in fraudulent charges.

New Ulm Police Investigator Chris Moellenhoff reviewed the charges and found most of them were to Capitol One. On Jan. 25, 2023, Investigator Moellenhoff contacted Watson’s a retail store with online sales, and learned the charges were online orders for pool chemicals. Investigator Moellenhoff reviewed invoices and found the purchaser was Elbert.

Investigator Moellenhoff asked the victim about her debit cards and was told she changed her debit card three times due to charges appearing on her account. The victim said she did not provide her card information to Elbert and believes she either photographed the numbers or wrote them down.

Investigator Moellenhoff contacted Capitol One Fraud Investigator Macskassy who provided the victim’s three debit card numbers and a spreadsheet documenting 109 payment transactions totaling $59,129.40. Macskassy also provided card holder information that showed Elbert’s address, phone number and e-mail address matched the e-mail address on the card.

Elbert showed Investigator Moellenhoff her Capitol One app payment screen and a screen with four accounts listed including three debit card numbers, one of which was the victim’s. Elbert said she thought she’d deleted the victim’s debit card.

Elbert admitted most of the Capitol One charges are hers and said all the Capitol One transactions were mistakes.

The victim denied ever giving Elbert her debit card numbers.

“It is clear that Elbert was using the victim’s credit cards to make purchases, not only to pay her (Elbert’s) Capitol One card, but also to obtain cable/internet from CenturyLink, pool supplies from Watson’s and for her Verizon account.