2025 Winners

International and Region 4

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles 

JD Decker, Compliance Enforcement Administrator 

Nevada DMV Compliance Enforcement Division Administrator JD Decker and Patrol Investigator Mike Giddens responded to a radio call that a woman was trying to escape from a moving vehicle at a high rate of speed (100 mph). The passenger door was repeatedly being opened by the person who was trying to exit the vehicle. As they approached the vehicle in a marked police unit with sirens on, the subject got out of the car, raised the vehicle's hood claiming engine trouble, and stood in front of it with his arms behind his back. The officer arrested the subject at gunpoint and upon clearing the vehicle, they found a 17-year-old female, crying with a bloodied and bruised face, a melon-sized knot on her forehead, severe ligature marks on her neck, and signs of shock. She turned out to be the girlfriend of the subject, who routinely beat her and told her that he was taking her into the desert to kill her. Prior to the officers' arrival, the subject was on top of her in the back seat attempting to strangle her. Without the timely actions of the officers, the victim would most likely not be alive today. Both officers were awarded with a medal of valor from the Nevada DMV for their heroic actions. 

Region 1

Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration 

John Geisler, Investigator 

The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA), Office of Investigations and Security Services, is much like the virus protection on a computer.  It works quietly and efficiently in the background, identifying, quarantining, and removing problems. If done correctly, the systems are not slowed down, and in fact almost no one knows they did anything at all, however, sometimes an employee does such outstanding work that they deserve public recognition.   

During the past year, Investigator John Geisler has been the sole person investigating and resolving Internet-based fraud, in particular E-Check fraud perpetrated against the MVA and its customers. John was among the first to identify the commonality in the online cases, and to use that information to get out in front of the problem, which undoubtedly reduced the number of potential victims.  The MVA noted an uptick in customers whose online accounts had been compromised, where unauthorized e-Check transactions had been conducted. The most prevalent indicator was when a customer received a bill for a returned check, that had been used for a transaction, which the true customer had no knowledge. In such cases, the customer’s banking information was utilized in an attempt to compromise their online MVA account.  The goal of these fraudsters was to obtain fraudulent identity products or to gain access to the customer’s personal data. John was able to quickly address these matters by first closing the door to further fraudulent activity on MVA systems, and coordinating with customers, banks, and other financial institutions to further protect the impacted customer’s interests. John developed numerous contacts in law enforcement, with IT managers, and persons in financial institutions to effectively identify, halt and remediate this illegal activity. He also worked with MVA officials to identify and eliminate any vulnerabilities in MVA systems, so fraudsters could no longer obtain a toehold in the network.  In cases where a customer’s identity had been compromised, Geisler worked to have the customer’s accounts locked or flagged as appropriate. His work played a significant part in the creation of a new tool available in the system, the ability to change a customer’s account number quickly, to reduce the possibility of additional victimization.  

Geisler placed State charges in 120 cases, resulting in over $38,000 in fines levied and/or collected by the courts. He worked 64 cases of MVA Internet accounts being compromised and resolved every matter by cancellation of the fraudulent accounts, or the recovery and reinstatement of illegally accessed accounts. Geisler also worked to successfully prosecute the operators of a tag and title business who had bilked its customers and the state of many thousands of dollars, and on many instances of attempted credit card   fraud and Identity theft via MVA kiosk stations throughout the State. Again, Geisler directly protects   customers, and the integrity of MVA automated systems. Geisler had a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of our customers and undoubtedly saved them from the potential loss of significant amounts of money by identifying fraudulent accounts and closing them down.    

Region 2

Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security 

Melody Rampy, Director, Quality Assurance Division  

Melody Rampy, Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, TDOSHS, created the Quality Assurance Division (QAD) in March of 2024 as a major stride toward preventing and detecting fraud in issuance of identification and driving credentials. Melody Rampy was named Director of the new unit and holds a Certified Fraud Examiner license. In March 2024 (the same month the unit was created), Melody received an e-mail from the finance division that they were seeing several chargebacks with billing information of Flushing, NY. After running some reports and digging into the system, she was able to uncover a total of 271 victims of identity fraud. This turned out to be a case that shared similarities with several other states. The federal investigation is still underway, but the fraudster(s) were using stolen PII and stolen credit cards to log into the TDOSHS e-Services portal as the victims and order duplicate licenses, changing the mailing addresses to Flushing, NY. Melody worked closely with the Tennessee Highway Patrol Criminal Investigations Division to identify potential suspects that are being investigated.      

After speaking about this fraud at the AAMVA Identity Management Pop-Up Classroom in 2024, several other states reached out to say they had experienced the exact same Modus Operandi recently. Some states said they were currently seeing it, and some states mentioned they had not seen it yet, but Melody’s presentation made them review their data and place proactive controls – potentially helping prevent the fraud from occurring.   Several technological improvements were implemented in Tennessee because of this fraud. Address changes were completely turned off through e-Services within days of discovering the fraud. This was a major factor in keeping the number of victims low, whereas some states discovered thousands of victims before being able to stop it. Melody developed a functionality in the system that can be placed on an account when the customer’s PII is compromised called a “Potential Fraud Victim indicator”. This prevents e-Services transactions for that account, limiting transactions to the self-service kiosks or in-person, both of which require facial recognition. They more recently started requiring the last 5 digits of the DD# to login to e-Services which limits accessibility to those who have a physical (or photo) copy of their credential. This limits fraud where only a person’s PII is known by the fraudster.      

Under Melody’s leadership, the development of the Quality Assurance Division has already made notable differences in preventing fraud at the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The team has already uncovered several other potentially fraudulent situations and they have also been able to educate other state employees about driver license fraud.      

Region 3

Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles 

Matt Brodecky, Motor Vehicle Fraud Investigator  

Investigator Matt Brodecky is a 30-year veteran in law enforcement with over two decades of investigative experience. His decades of experience yielded great dividends while working a stolen/clone vehicle case this past year.  During the course of the investigation, Investigator Brodecky was able to secure some of the purchase documents from the victim. He had the forethought to send the documents to the crime laboratory to see if any latent prints could be lifted from the documents, and the lab was able to lift a latent palm print from the paper document. An individual matching the print was arrested on several charges relating to fraud and theft by deception. The individual was part of a crime ring operating in several states, and the work of Investigator Brodecky resulted in hard physical evidence tying him to the crimes in Nebraska. Investigator Brodecky’s thoroughness to exhaust all avenues to gather evidence to identify and ultimately prosecute an individual who victimized numerous individuals led to connecting cases across ten states with over a hundred victims who suffered financial losses of more than $3 million.