CA: Los Angeles restaurant credit card skimming

[dano <dano () well com>]

Los Angeles waitress accused of "skimming" credit cards, "...only a 
small fry in the operation..."


<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-waitress22may22,1,6383766,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california>

Ex-waitress allegedly swiped identities
More than $16,000 in false charges were made using numbers stolen at 
a West L.A. eatery.
By Stuart Silverstein
Times Staff Writer

May 22, 2007

A waitress who worked at a Hamburger Hamlet restaurant last year has 
been accused of picking up more than tips from her customers.

The former waitress also made off with the credit or debit card 
numbers of at least half a dozen patrons - and possibly as many as 
40, the Los Angeles city attorney's office said Monday. Already, 
about $16,300 in unauthorized charges have been linked to the scam.

A telltale clue that helped the restaurant and investigators zero in 
on the waitress: She would make quick visits to the restroom after 
picking up customers' charge cards, apparently to swipe them through 
a palm-sized device that recorded the confidential numbers.

"One of our team members was behaving a little suspiciously, I'd 
guess you'd say," said Greg Hernandez, an executive vice president 
for the eight-restaurant Hamlet Restaurant Group.

April DuBoise, 27, of Los Angeles, is charged with nine identity 
theft and fraud-related counts, along with five counts of grand 
theft, said Jonathan Diamond of the city attorney's office. DuBoise 
worked for the chain's West Los Angeles location on South Sepulveda 
Boulevard over a six-week period in February and March of 2006.

She is to be arraigned June 25 in Los Angeles County Superior Court. 
If convicted, DuBoise could face up to 12 years in jail and $12,000 
in fines.

But investigators said DuBoise was essentially a small fry in the 
operation. They said she pocketed only $200 from the scam.

They say that a key figure in the case, who remains at large, was an 
unidentified man who provided DuBoise with the device, known as a 
"wedge," to skim the card numbers.

He promised to give her $10 for each card number she delivered - but 
vanished, officials said, before paying off his full debt to the 
waitress.

Investigators said the roughly $16,300 in bogus charges that have 
been identified showed up on the statements of six of the 
restaurant's customers. Evidence suggests that 35 to 40 cardholders 
were victimized, and the total dollar amount of unauthorized charges 
can only be guessed.

The investigation began when Citigroup, which issued some of the 
cards, received complaints about unauthorized charges showing up on 
customers' statements. The company contacted the U.S. Secret Service, 
and eventually the office of City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo joined the 
investigation.

Authorities enlisted the restaurant chain's cooperation after 
noticing that all of the cardholders had dined at the West Los 
Angeles location. (Its name, like the rest of the chain's outlets, 
was changed to Hamlet Restaurant and Bar last summer.)

Investigators said receipts showed that DuBoise was the server on six 
compromised cards. And managers, they said, also then realized that 
DuBoise had the strange habit of trekking to the restroom after 
picking up customers' cards.

Investigators say consumers should check their financial statements 
regularly and report bogus charges immediately, to curb identity 
theft. Authorities also recommended that consumers watch out for 
other strange behavior related to charge cards - such as a server who 
hurries to the bathroom with a card.

"That would be something that would look sort of suspicious to me," 
said Wayne Williams, deputy special agent in charge of the Los 
Angeles field office of the Secret Service.
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