Federal law enforcement authorities on both coasts struck blows against both ATM skimming and credit card identity theft last week when thieves pleaded guilty to using both unsavory disciplines to snare unwitting consumers.
The victory against at least some ATM skimmers came when two of the thieves pleaded guilty to a package of charges related to their actions in the Atlanta area.
ATM skimming, the practice of installing small devices and cameras at ATMs to steal consumer's card data, began in Europe but has been gradually moving into the U.S. The two most recent thieves facing years in federal prison are from Bulgaria originally and relied on connections in Russia to help the commit their crimes, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia.
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According to court documents, Yordan Kavaklov and Nikolay Nikolov deployed a skimming device at ATMs to collect the card numbers from unsuspecting ATM users and a small camera to record their personal identification numbers.
The pair sent data from the devices as e-mail attachments to a Russian address and then received a list of card numbers and corresponding PIN numbers by a return e-mail. The thieves then encoded the card information onto stolen gift cards from Atlanta area retailers and used them at ATMs to empty checking accounts.
The pair were only caught after alert consumers near a Bank of America ATM in Marietta, Ga., noticed they appeared to be using multiple cards to withdraw cash multiple times from several adjoining ATM machines and called police, the court documents said.
Authorities reported that when finally apprehended, the pair had more than $57,000 on hand, almost all of it in $20 bills.
The capture of the credit card ID thieves should be credited to an alert part-time retail clerk and college student who acted quickly when she realized a woman who had been previously photographed fraudulently applying for credit was standing at her counter.
According to court documents and a report in The Seattle Times, Michelle McCambridge, 23, became aware that she had become a victim of identity theft when bills began arriving for retail credit cards she had never opened. Infuriated, she sought and was finally able to see a grainy photo of a woman opening a credit card in her name captured by a surveillance camera.
Only a week later, McCambridge was shocked to look up and see what she believed to be the same woman standing in front of her counter at JC Penny, seeking to open a credit account. Thinking quickly, she excused herself long enough to alert her manager to train the store's security cameras on the woman.
Those photos helped police catch a five person ring that, according to court documents, had been responsible for defrauding almost 50 people of tens of thousands of dollars.
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