Waiters Arrested In $3M Credit Card Fraud
The diners didn't know it, but their credit cards were going to pay for more than their meals, prosecutors said.
Waiters in about 40 restaurants, in New York and elsewhere, quietly recorded customers' credit card information and passed it on to people who used the information to make more than $3 million worth of illegal purchases, according to prosecutors.
Thirteen people were indicted Friday on charges stemming from their roles in the credit card fraud, prosecutors said.
The credit card account information was stolen from customers who visited restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown and other parts of the New York metropolitan area, as well eateries in Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Some members of the group stole customers' information; some made the counterfeit cards; others shopped for merchandise; and finally someone bought the goods for cash, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.
Morgenthau said 12 of the 13 people indicted are in custody and are expected to be arraigned Monday. All the defendants are being charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, punishable by up to four years in prison. Seven are also being charged with second-degree grand larceny, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years.
Authorities were still seeking one suspect, identified by prosecutors only as "John Doe."
When the 35-year-old ringleader was arrested Wednesday, Morgenthau said, police found 296 fake credit cards, $200,000 in cash, numerous Rolex watches and expensive handbags in his Brooklyn home.
The district attorney said conspiracy leaders recruited and managed people who worked as waiters and provided them with small, hand-held "skimmers" that read and recorded information on the magnetic strips of patrons' credit cards.
The leaders, some of whom worked in the restaurants with their recruits, then collected the skimming devices and paid the waiters $35 to $50 for information from each credit card stored in the devices, Morgenthau said.
He said the conspirators operated from November 2005 until this week.
The suspects used the stolen information to create counterfeit credit cards by encoding the information on high-quality credit card blanks, Morgenthau said.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Waiters in about 40 restaurants, in New York and elsewhere, quietly recorded customers' credit card information and passed it on to people who used the information to make more than $3 million worth of illegal purchases, according to prosecutors.
Thirteen people were indicted Friday on charges stemming from their roles in the credit card fraud, prosecutors said.
The credit card account information was stolen from customers who visited restaurants in Manhattan's Chinatown and other parts of the New York metropolitan area, as well eateries in Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Some members of the group stole customers' information; some made the counterfeit cards; others shopped for merchandise; and finally someone bought the goods for cash, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.
Morgenthau said 12 of the 13 people indicted are in custody and are expected to be arraigned Monday. All the defendants are being charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, punishable by up to four years in prison. Seven are also being charged with second-degree grand larceny, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years.
Authorities were still seeking one suspect, identified by prosecutors only as "John Doe."
When the 35-year-old ringleader was arrested Wednesday, Morgenthau said, police found 296 fake credit cards, $200,000 in cash, numerous Rolex watches and expensive handbags in his Brooklyn home.
The district attorney said conspiracy leaders recruited and managed people who worked as waiters and provided them with small, hand-held "skimmers" that read and recorded information on the magnetic strips of patrons' credit cards.
The leaders, some of whom worked in the restaurants with their recruits, then collected the skimming devices and paid the waiters $35 to $50 for information from each credit card stored in the devices, Morgenthau said.
He said the conspirators operated from November 2005 until this week.
The suspects used the stolen information to create counterfeit credit cards by encoding the information on high-quality credit card blanks, Morgenthau said.
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Rather be like an old stone block hidden in the foundation, under the ground where no one can see you. Because of you, the house will not fall." (Saint Josemaria Escriva', The Way, 590)
These credit-checks are paper checks that are submitted with the persons photo on it. The information can not be scanned, but numbers reflect the routing to the bank, where the bank managers use the routing number to locate the account number.
This way people do not have access to individual account numbers. The business establishment would be required use digital cameras to take the picture of the customer paying with their photo credit-checks. The business sends their photo with the credit-check to the bank for payment.
Banks would be required to contact owners of the credit-checks via text message on their phones or computer to see if they authorized these transactions. They can not say no...if the business has their picture via the digital camera upon their purchase.
This plan would protect both parties in the business transaction, and stop banking theft.
Americans are such rip off artists. It only hurts America's reputation more and more.
Get on the ball and start making and developing this system.
"With statements like that we all know racism is alive and well in the US of A. You are pathetic."
Posted by oleander8 at 07:35 PM : Apr 21, 2007
Yeah! And if you and others like you would give it a rest, MAYBE we might have a generation grow up without thinking "RACE". As a child I learned the 'N' word from the black kids in my class. My family refused to use those kinds of words.
Fast forward a few years and I was drinking coffee in a paint store that had just had to guys come in that said they were there to reprogram the credit card terminal. When they ask for a card and called the credit card clearing service the two guys left in a hurry.
We never knew what they were up to. They were probably just change clearing agencies. But the could do a lot more.
It would not be too difficult to down load the program from a credit card terminal and take it home and patch it to secretly store or send you credit card data. The go back and install it. I won't go into details but its not rocket science.
If there were only 2 or 3 of you and no one got greedy you could steal a lot of money.
GC
With statements like that we all know racism is alive and well in the US of A. You are pathetic.