Houston police cracked a major credit card skimming operation when they raided an Airbnb, uncovering a "skimmer manufacturing lab" and charging four suspects with sophisticated fraud schemes that targeted ATM users across Houston, Click2Houston reported. According to investigators, these individuals, believed to be part of a Romanian crime family, entered the US from Canada and discarded court-mandated GPS ankle monitors to conduct their illegal activities.
The group's modus operandi involved placing card skimmers in various locations while they stayed in Houston. At least one suspect had a history of criminal activities in other countries. The suspects operated a home base in Sunnyside, where police found equipment to create numerous skimming devices.
The discovery closely follows a warning from Pasadena police regarding multiple credit card skimmers at various ATMs throughout the city, indicating a spike in such fraudulent activities, as detailed in a KHOU report. Thieves had reportedly extracted approximately $13,000 from unsuspecting victims within one month through the use of these illicit skimming devices across the city.
With rising concerns over card skimmers, law enforcement and the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston have urged consumers to be vigilant when using card readers. "Essentially, what happens is, when the individual goes to use their debit or credit card, the information is skimmed or scanned into the device that they installed on an ATM," Jessica Ramirez, with Pasadena police, said, as per KHOU. She recommended examining card readers for signs of tampering and considering alternate payment methods, such as paying inside gas stations or using digital wallets, which generate unique codes for each transaction.
In the recent Houston bust, police managed to nab two suspects, Marius Constantin Tica and Dumitru Catalin Licsor, in Pearland with 379 altered cards and over $14,000 in cash. The other two suspects, Gabriel Alin Bulmaci and Alexandru-Jean Marcu, were later identified when they attempted to enter the aforementioned Airbnb. Investigators seized more than $12,000 in cash and over 400 prepay gift cards from the rental property.
