California prosecutors say the Romanian mafia has given an old scam, debit card skimming, a new look by installing identity-stealing devices at grocery store self-checkouts.
Debit card skimmers have long been a problem at gas stations and ATMs. Currently, a network of highly organized fraudsters is expanding.
“It looks like they’re having people sit outside Walmart or Target and beg,” said Kimberly Edds, communications director for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. “They may have several kids, and they’re using Bluetooth technology that’s actually connected to skimmers in the store, so it’s like a two-to-one, so people can Get the cash to give them and steal the numbers from the skimmer.”
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Florin Duduianu (inset), who was convicted of fraud and theft in California, is also one of Romania’s most wanted criminals. A TikTok screenshot (right) shows a Mafia suspect posing with an Audi he paid for with stolen funds in a disabled parking lot. On the left is a clone of the debit card confiscated during the arrest. (Orange County)
Surveillance video obtained by El Cajon police shows the suspect was able to place the skimmer over the credit card reader of the register in just a few seconds, and it looks almost identical to the real thing.
Police recommend pulling and swiping your credit card before inserting it. If it wobbles or comes off, it’s a fake.
Authorities said they had already arrested dozens of suspects, most of whom had ties to organized crime in Romania.
A still image from surveillance video shows the suspects placing a skimming device on a credit card reader at a grocery store register. Inset: A police officer in El Cajon, California holds a skimmer next to a real device to show the similarities. (El Cajon Police Department)
And despite major busts in the United States, Europe and Mexico of dozens of suspects working with cartels in tourist hotspots like Tulum in December and January, thieves activity has doubled and the number of thefts has increased, authorities said.
They may be raking in up to $9 million a month, much of it at taxpayer expense.
A suspect, whose face has been blurred by authorities, poses in designer clothes in the back of an Audi sports car in Los Angeles. (Orange County DA)
Skimmers may also target EBT card users, according to Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer’s office, which announced a major crackdown on this type of crime earlier this year, and the state announced monthly payments. It is said that funds were immediately drained from the account. As a result, more than $100 million worth of theft has robbed taxpayer-funded welfare programs and their recipients.
“The victim is a single mother struggling to keep a roof over her child’s head and food on the table, and she is standing in line at the checkout with bags full of groceries when she finds herself These are hard-working people in need who are humiliated to find themselves putting food on the table, only to have no money in their accounts because a thief secretly stole everything,” Spitzer said in a statement. “Meanwhile, thieves use this money to finance organized crime, buy luxury cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and live lavish lives the true recipients can only dream of. ”
On top of that, a porous southern border provides gangs with a steady supply of new muscle, while a combination of lax bail policies and incomplete criminal records means members don’t have to wear ankle monitoring devices if arrested. You can cut off your body and escape from the law.
As these FBI images show, skimmers using Bluetooth technology can be hidden behind name plates, registers, gas pumps, and other inconspicuous areas of ATMs. (FBI)
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“Thousands of criminals suspected of being involved in Romanian organized crime have been confirmed to be in the United States, the majority primarily located on the southern border,” Eds told Fox News Digital. They are entering the country illegally through the country.” “A small proportion of this population enters the country as asylum seekers.”
Thief’s tools and partially assembled skimming device are shown. (FBI)
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A group of Southern California counties including Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara witness about 15% of Romanian mob activity in the United States, she said.
Not only are the scammers sending the stolen money back to Romania to fund lavish lifestyles and European sports cars, they are also trading in food stamps for infant formula and energy drinks, linking them to local cartels. We have partnered with them to resell them in Mexico.
A wall of infant formula that prosecutors say Romanian gangsters bought with food stamps and planned to sell in Mexico in conjunction with a cartel is seen. (Orange County DA)
Many have even flaunted their ill-gotten gains on TikTok, including a 14-year-old suspect who was captured by police driving a $250,000 sports car and wearing a Rolex. .
One of the men involved in the plot, Florin Duduianu, was already on Romania’s most wanted list.
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The 39-year-old man was convicted in January after police observed him making multiple withdrawals from the same ATM using different cards in Placentia, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. They arrested a man in possession of four of his Visa gift cards that had been reprogrammed into clones of four different victims’ debit cards.
The FBI recovered these cloned debit cards with the victims’ PIN numbers and total cash amounts written on them. (FBI)
Duduianu is expected to be sentenced to 30 years in federal prison at sentencing later this week, according to the Justice Department.
In December, the FBI announced that it would work with Romanian police to raid dozens of locations in Europe related to the California skimming theft case.
The joint operation led to the arrest of 48 people and the recovery of more than $1 million and 11 luxury cars.
Aerial panoramic view of Cancun’s hotel zone and Playa Caracol and Kukulcan Road along the Riviera Maya in Quintana Roo, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. (St. Petersburg)
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Many of the suspects arrested in Romania also have ties to the Mexican gang Riviera Maya, which itself has been involved in skimming thefts of millions of dollars in tourist destinations popular with Americans, including Tulum and Cancun in Quintana Roo state. He has been accused of committing the crime.
The gang’s leader, Florian Tudor, is awaiting trial on fraud charges in Mexico and is also wanted in Romania for attempted murder.
FOX News’ Elise Perry contributed to this report.
