These Credit Cards Really Have Expired

Postal inspectors have a nickname for Michael Dantorio: Dead Man Walking.

Not because he resembles the death-row inmate played by Sean Penn in the movie of that name.

The 45-year-old Costa Mesa resident just has the habit of getting credit cards under dead people’s names, then charging up a storm, investigators say.

Dantorio has been convicted three times of the ghoulish fraud. Once, when Costa Mesa police arrested him, they founds obituaries in his possession, records show.

Now postal service investigators say he’s at it again. They have accused him of swiping the identities of 17 deceased people and running up $60,000 in charges between July and March.

Dantorio was arrested last month and charged with violating the terms of his parole, stemming from a 1997 conviction. His parole was revoked May 11.

Among others, Dantorio allegedly stole the identity of Naomi Dabalack’s brother, who died in March at age 44, postal inspectors said.

Dabalack started picking up her brother’s mail after his death. The Garden Grove woman realized something was wrong when the postal service sent a notification that someone had submitted a change-of-address form in her brother’s name, forwarding his mail to a commercial mailbox in Corona del Mar.

“Then [Dantorio allegedly] ordered a duplicate credit card in my brother’s identity,” Dabalack said. He used it to buy several passes to Disneyland, among other purchases, she said.

“I just felt so violated,” said Dabalack, who asked that her brother’s name not be published. “We were still in the grieving process. To take advantage of a person who’s just passed away, I don’t understand how he could do it.”