13 waiters indicted in $3 million credit card fraud in NYC

[<rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/21/new.york.identity.theft.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- 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 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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