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A Romanian man has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for running an ATM skimming unit that used electronic surveillance techniques to steal banking information from low-income people. The problem is growing nationwide, the Justice Department announced this week.
The ringleader, Marius Oprea, 38, secretly installed pinhole cameras, card readers and other “skimming” devices at ATMs in California, according to a federal criminal complaint. Prosecutors say the organization used skimming techniques to clone anti-poverty program participants’ debit cards and steal unemployment benefits from poor people.
ATM skimming is when a criminal places a hidden electronic device on an ATM card reader. The FBI says each time a customer uses the machine, the reader collects information from the magnetic strip on the bank card.
Federal prosecutors have targeted skimming scammers in several states in recent months, including Alabama, California, Nevada and Florida. Data analysis firm FICO tracked a spike in skimming fraud across the United States in 2023, with debit card breaches increasing by 96%. The FBI estimates that skimming costs financial institutions and consumers more than $1 billion each year.
The case of a Romanian man who has pleaded guilty in federal court in California to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud is a case of increasingly sophisticated methods used to trick unsuspecting people into giving up sensitive banking information at ATM machines. This is the latest incident using. According to federal prosecutors, many of those charged with this crime are from overseas.
“Skimming activity has increased tremendously,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Brown, who prosecuted the case, told USA TODAY. “It’s very lucrative and difficult to catch because the perpetrators usually enter the United States illegally and use fake IDs and live under false names.”
Federal and European authorities crack down on cross-border Operation Oprea
Oprea, who prosecutors believe entered the country illegally, launched a skimming unit in 2023 or earlier, and federal agents searched his car and residence in Oxnard, Calif., on May 12, 2023. Prosecutors believe that he was active until then.
Items found during the raid included more than 20 cloned ATM cards, a card reader, a fake Slovak passport with Oprea’s photo under a false name, more than 100 cloned ATM cards, multiple ATM skimmers, and pinhole camera photos. The items include a cell phone with a . in response to a federal complaint obtained by USA TODAY.
According to the complaint, the skimming devices were smuggled into the United States from Vienna, Austria, in packages labeled “audio equipment” and addressed to Oprea’s alias and a co-conspirator’s alias. When European authorities inspected a similar package addressed to the same person, they found the device was stuffed inside a hollow speaker.
Federal law enforcement authorities began tracking the package after receiving a tip from Romanian law enforcement authorities, who also alerted U.S. authorities to the alleged co-conspirator, Paul Kimpian, according to the complaint.
Kimpian and another co-conspirator were taken into custody in Ventura County, but both were released on cash bail and “fled to an unknown location” after removing their electronic monitoring devices, according to federal documents.
Skimming from the weak
The case was investigated by the Vulnerable Communities Task Force, a team that specializes in prosecuting people who prey on communities who are less likely to report crimes and have fewer legal recourses. This includes “the poor, the elderly, and victims who rely on public benefits.” They were reluctant to seek assistance from government authorities,” the Justice Department said.
“The people who are being victimized are not CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. They are people who need money and need it badly,” said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office. . “Then they went to the ATM and discovered they had very little cash in their account.”
McEvoy said these groups were targeted because the cards they used through public programs were easy to clone. In early 2023, 15 people were arrested in California and charged with targeting public benefit recipients through a similar skimming scheme.
Skimming scams are on the rise
Authorities across the United States have indicted fraudsters who used skimming devices to steal millions of dollars from Americans by using skimming techniques at fuel pumps, cash registers, and ATMs.
FICO tracked nearly 1,600 skimming incidents last year, up from 1,100 in 2022. The data analysis firm also found a spike in fraud at bank ATMs, but noted that most fraudsters still target locations outside banks, such as free-standing terminals in convenience stores. .
In February, five people were arrested in New York in connection with a scheme that targeted more than 600 bank accounts. According to federal prosecutors, the group is suspected of installing devices and cameras at ATMS to obtain victims’ bank account information and PIN numbers, then transferring that data to counterfeit debit cards to make purchases and withdraw cash. It is said that there is.
A Las Vegas man was sentenced in June to more than four years in prison for a $5 million skimming scam that targeted gas station customers in Nevada and Southern California.
Last April, local authorities in Florida arrested two people on suspicion of using skimming devices and counterfeit cards to steal more than $11,000 from ATMs in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties.
Steve Wiseman, a lecturer in law and taxation at Bentley University, said the United States is one of the few countries that continues to use magnetic stripe cards, and many countries around the world are using computers containing encrypted data. He pointed out that it uses a new EMV smart card with a chip. But Wiseman said scammers are always “adapting to the latest technology.”
The FBI recommends several safety measures to protect yourself from skimming.
- Choose cards with chip technology instead of magnetic stripe cards.
- Use ATMs indoors in well-lit areas where you are less likely to be attacked.
- Be especially careful in tourist areas.
- Do not use a card reader that appears abnormal or damaged.
- Cover the keypad when entering your PIN to protect it from the camera.
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