♪ deep in december ♪ it's nice to remember this is "nightline." tonight our undercover investigation into a surprising kind of identity fraud. this pastor says he has got a perfectly legal way to fix your bad credit. why doesn't he want to talk to us? >> plus, welcome to beautiful people.com. while the pool of elite dating sites is growing, these exclusive clubs are smaller than ever. to get voted in here you need a nice face, a perfect body and a thick skin. with most applicants getting rejected others may be going to extremes to join the party. are the people behind amazon.com toiling in an emotionally toxic

work place? the new allegations and tonight how the multibillionaire ceo is responding. but first the "nightline" five. ♪ get ready let's go >> hey now, hey now. >> time to layer on the cute with styles and the trends. jcpenney when it fits you feel it. during the big back to school sale get extra 20% off with your jcpenn jcpenney coupon. >> a single patch created the category of pain relief. now, 80 years later, salonpas, pain relieves. salonpas for targeted relief. number one in just 60 seconds.

good evening. tonight you are going to see a

dramatic confrontation between co-anchor byron pitts and pastor accused of pedaling surprising kind of identity fraud. why so many are falling victim to this so-called synthetic identity fraud and how a man of god got mixed up in it. here is byron. >> nice to meet you. this is candy my girlfriend. >> reporter: when you repair people's credit for a living it is all about the personal connection. >> i am going to ask you to leave my property. >> reporter: but you really can't blame donald baptiste for being in a bad mood, he learned we attended two sales meeting wearing hidden cameras. meetings in which he alleged to have been selling a new type of identity fraud called synthetic identity fraud. the allegation, the suggestion that you are involved in synthetic fraud. that you go to people who are desperate to have their credit restored. >> everything that i do is legal. >> reporter: that is not how investigators see it. they say this kind of i.d. manipulation is against the law.

unlike typical i.d. fraud in which a thief steals someone's identity, synthetic fraudsters help invent new identities. >> the fraudster uses one piece of your i didn't tee and combines with fake information, perhaps a different name. >> reporter: most important a different social security number. >> all put together to form this synthetic identity. >> reporter: a growing problem. by some reports, synthetic fraud accounts for 85% of fraud in the country. costing an estimated $2 billion every year. baptiste's small business, not alleged on that scale. still from this unassuming storefront in baton rouge, louisiana, formerly occupied by driving academy. baptiste has reached all over the country using social media. >> we got on the conference call. when i heard people chichi inch

chicago, houston, memphis. it was like, oh, man this is the real deal. >> reporter: for the pastor and many other customers who say they had no idea what they were getting into, baptiste's most important credential his bible. >> -- worship the lord. >> reporter: 24 years old, baptiste calls himself an apostle and says he has his own church in baton rouge. >> that sealed the deal. there was another man of god. >> reporter: for pastor foster struggling to get himself out of debt and fledgling church in cleveland, ohio on its feet. it all sealed like divine providence. >> he was talking fresh start. get your credit together. >> reporter: to do that, foster says baptiste advised him to coop his real name but to get a new address. then he sold him something like a new social security number. >> he was selling this nine-digit number. credit profile number. >> a cpn is a multidigit number looks similar to a social security number. and it's what's given to people

by these -- credit card repair companies for them to go out and open up new accounts. could it really be this easy? two of our producers headed to baton rouge, going undercover. >> this is the, the button camera. >> so this is our very discreet purse camera. posing as customers, hear more a about the man himself. he laid out his method. do you know what's on it? >> reporter: listen to how baptiste describes the cpns that seemed all most too good to be true. >> a nine-digit number you get. validated by the social security administration. you use it almost like your social. you can only use it to buy a credit card. >> reporter: he was all too happy to explain where he gets them. >> we build them. we go into the system. we apply for the new credit profile for the social security administration. >> reporter: investigators tell us cpns are often obtained by plugging in random nine-digit

numbers into a website or validation site. we are not going to name here. until a number is found that has not been issued. he told us we could buy a cpn for $350. it sounded so good. but was it legal? >> okay. >> the fbi some people say cpns are illegal. the only reason they say they're illegal because a lot of people don't know how to use it. >> reporter: turns out the people who say it is illegal that would be the authorities. >> there is no legal use for a cpn, not issued by the social security administration. >> reporter: the social security administration agreeing saying despite what many of these credit repair web sites imply, cpns are not legal. remember this. >> it is legal. we go to the fbi. >> reporter: we called the fbi as well. they say they also don't issue cpns. the front works because authorities say some credit card companies rarely check to see if the cpn matches a person's name. the electronic transactions

association, a trade group made up of credit card issuing banks says consumes who choose to place one of the cpns on a credit application will be committing a federal crime. state and federal agencies are cracking down. in new jersey, four people pled guilty to stealing $200 million using synthetic id fraud. and in indiana, over a dozen people pled guilty to selling cpns, receiving sentences of up to 40 months. >> we was really at a crossroads wit ministry, finances. foster says he got the credit card using the new credit pre file. then baptiste offered something better. >> we were strapped for lack of a better term. >> reporter: he would get foster a loon ine of credit up to $500. all he needed was a cash payment of $4,000. >> the trust was there. >> reporter: hoping to finance a church, he wired baptiste the cash. as soon as the money was gone, so was baptiste. >> donald baptiste is a wolf in

sheep's clothing. >> same thing happened to her. if i was donald baptiste, what would you say to me? >> i want my damn money back. >> reporter: we decided to pay a visit to his office in baton rouge. >> hello, mr. baptiste, my name is byron pitts. we tacked to police investigators what you are doing with credit privacy numbers is illegal. you didn't do credit privacy numbers? i'm sorry, i have many gifts, mr. baptiste, lip-reading isn't one of those. would you mind opening the door so we can talk. turning the lights off. he apparently didn't want to talk. mr. baptiste. after sitting in the dark in his office he finally came out. there are people who told us that they gave you $1,500, $4,000. and never heard from you again. they're not telling the truth? >> they're not telling the truth. all my numbers are still the same. >> reporter: you said you get the cpn numbers from social security, is that correct? >> no.

>> reporter: you told me a few minutes ago. we have you on camera. >> i said i don't get them. the agency gets them. >> reporter: the agency gets the numbers from social security? >> correct. >> reporter: what is it? >> legal cpn, an online company in michigan with an f rating from the better business bureau did not respond to multiple requests for comment. >> reporter: you say you get the numbers legally. but i'm telling you now we talked to social security, they say that is not possible they dent issue cpn numbers. >> that's fine. >> reporter: how do you explain it? >> that's fine. i've don't have an explanation. >> reporter: do you thing it is legal, ethical? >> i'm asking you are leaving the prompt. >> reporter: it is your belief you are an honest businessman? >> yes. >> reporter: baptiste suggest he's did nothing wrong. in fact not arrested or charged with fraud. fosters and wells complaint along with hundreds of others have been referred to state authorities. for now, donald baptiste appears to still be in business. >> it's been a long time coming.

>> reporter: back in cleveland, pastor foster closed on a new church, three years after investing with baptiste. >> what donald baptiste meant for evil, god turned around and worked it for our good. >> reporter: for "nightline," byron pitts in baton rouge, louisiana. up next -- the dating site that only accepts beautiful people. wait until you hear how far some people have gone to get in. rthr. and you're talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. doctors have been prescribing humira for more than 10 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contrubutes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal

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folks behind beautifulpeople.com say it's like the vip room of dating sites. oen only hotties allowed. you have to be voted in based on your picture. you be the judge -- is this a brilliant business idea or the most obnoxious superficial dating site on planet earth? nick watt takes us behind the scenes once again tonight. ♪ ♪ >> how you doing? >> reporter: these people are beautiful. officially beautiful. they're in an elite club.

>> my friend in vegas. >> reporter: and they're radiating in a bar on sunset boulevard, hollywood. >> i am not going to walk into a bar and see, there may be a fat girl or a whatever girl looking the way she looks. oh, my gosh, she might have an exciting personality. she might be the best woman i have met on earth. oh, my gosh. you know what, eh. >> reporter: all these beauties, well on the outside at least are members of an exploding online dating site. >> reporter: have you ever dated an ugly dude? >> yeah, i lost my virginity to one. >> reporter: members of the site vote you in if they think you are gorgeous based on one picture. called simply, beautifulpeople.com. >> beautiful people based on a fundamental principle of human nature. we all, at least initially, with some one we find attractive, not politically correct, but honest. if the online dating market was

a nightclub, beautiful people would be the vichp room. >> the league, a topnotch job and ivyish alma mater. rava, tinder for the rich or famous. such sites say -- so so beautiful people don't have to be bothered by ugly people? >> essentially in a nutshell. look at it in a different way. if you are in a bar you will approach some one if you are attracted to them. >> reporter: did you get on first time trying? >> the first time i did not. it was before i had my nose. >> reporter: are the eyelashes real? >> no, they're not. fake like my boobs. >> i can't speak to that. >> reporter: this is torrie lynn's bedroom. i had to have the picture framed above my bed. it's amazing. >> reporter: an actress/model. >> i made some enhancements.

now i am perfectly on the site. making connections and meeting people. >> reporter: before/after of other whose have gun to ex-streams to join the club. they look to claim the site is a motivator for team to live well and take care of themselves. that's the spin. they have even launched a mentoring program, coaching rejects for another try. >> i want to help other people. pay it forward. play the rules of the game. the rules of the game is, i was a bucktooth kid. >> reporter: $10,000 he spent on the teeth. >> a lot of people want to be on the website. nose surgery, breast augmentation. surprised. facelift on a woman that was not 30 years old yet. >> the fact that a woman would undergo plastic surgery to alter her appearance so significantly to be deemed attractive on some website makes me very, very scared for what's going on in our heart and mind. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: at the beautiful

mixer, tawny is meeting lots of people while greg has his eye on the door. >> reporter: we have some one at the door who screens people. >> they've been coined the beauty police. if people show up and don't look like their picture, then they're quietly asked to leave and removed from the site. >> reporter: one woman in attendance who we won't show was deemed too ugly and asked to leave. >> that person got sent home. how are they feeling right now? >> they're feeling terrible. >> reporter: hmm. >> the members pay a premium to be invited to events for attractive people. >> reporter: sound like an awful person. the unsettling thing is i liked him from the moment i saw his. maybe because he is good looking. we are conditioned to care about the immediate external. think selfies, instagram, tinder, instant likes and swipes.

>> we are becoming so focused on immediate gratification and initial impulse decisions, and immediate reactions to the external, that we are going to get lost some where along the way. >> reporter: beautiful people launched in denmark, 2002, global with 800,000 members. okay. i'm sorry. i have to try this. what kind of lifestyle am i trying to project. chris take it for me. the lifestyle i am trying to project is dangerous. members of the site vote yes or no. women vote on men. and vice versa. part of the attraction of being on the site having that power to, guarding the velvet ropes yourself. you are deciding who comes in and who doesn't. >> reporter: exception rate is under 30%. 7 million people and counting have been rejected worldwide. >> if a woman is not necessarily beautiful in the classical sense, if she looks kind of sexy

or showing a bit of skin. a good chance of getting in. men are dogs. women look at the bigger overall picture. does this guy look like he has money. >> reporter: in the next 48 hours, strangers will determine my fate. vote whether i am beautiful enough. >> when they are submitting. i will say, yes, yes, yes, yes. to give them a chance. generous. magnanimous of you. maybe hope for me. once you are in you are not safe. profiles are reviewed periodically. >> well have removed people for letting themselves go. >> reporter: my application was not successful. i was overwhelmingly, humiliatingly rejected. check out the absolutely not tally. i shouldn't be here. any minute he will show me the door. >> take it easy, man. >> reporter: nick watt for "nightline" in hollywood. up next here, the new allegations against the online

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when you go on amazon.com to order a book, masking tape, or baby food. you probably don't think what kind of work place the company created. but a new report says it is emotionally toxic there. tonight the ceo is responding. here is abc's rebecca jarvis.

>> reporter: its most valuable retailer in the word. tonight amazon is under fire. "the new york times" released a scathe sing expose. past employees reportedly saying, nearly every person i worked with i saw cry at their desk. i would see people practically combust. workers given little slack after suffering personal crises like cancer. some employees disputed the claims on line. but the company's web series inside amazon doesn't sugarcoat the office environment. >> what's hard about working here is sort of the thing that made me stay. there is always a little chaos. >> you either fit here or you don't. you love it or you don't. >> reporter: the ceo's writing doesn't dekribt amazscribe the know.

for "nightline," i'm rebecca jarvis in new york. thank you to rebecca for the report. thank you to you for watching tonight. tune in to "good morning america" first thing in the morning. as always on our "nightline" facebook page and abcnews.com. thank you again for watching. and good night. my theory is pretty simple.

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