Fla. man pleads guilty in skimming scheme at Raynham, Taunton, Randolph gas stations

Namu Sampath, The Enterprise
·3 min read
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BOSTON ― A Florida man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Boston to his role in a gas station scheme to "steal thousands of customers' debit and credit card account numbers, and other personally identifying information, via a network of electronic skimming equipment at gas stations across New England" — a written statement from the Massachusetts Department of Justice said.

Luis Angel Naranjo Rodriguez, 32, of Hialeah, Fla., was charged on eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of possessing 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices (the debit and credit card account numbers), and one count of possessing device-making equipment (the card skimming devices), the statement said.

Between April 2019 and November 2019, Naranjo Rodriguez traveled frequently from Florida to Massachusetts to maintain a network of card skimmers he'd "secretly installed" in gas pumps in many Massachusetts and other New England gas stations.

"The devices were programmed to send text messages to his mobile phone with stolen account information after customers had used their debit or credit cards to purchase gas at the compromised fuel pumps," the department reported.

Card skimming devices linked to Naranjo Rodriguez's phone were "traced to at least 11 different gas stations" in Lynnfield, Concord, Malden, Taunton, Randolph and Raynham in Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Willington, Connecticut.

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How he did it

Throughout this scheme, Naranjo Rodriguez's mobile phone received "at least 4,878 text messages containing stolen debit and credit card account numbers," the statement said. And many of these text messages also included the account holders' names and PINs.

Naranjo Rodriguez then "cloned the account information belonging to the unwitting victims onto gift cards and other prepaid cards in order to steal money from them, typically by using the cloned cards to make ATM withdrawals, to purchase consumer goods that could be resold in secondary markets, and to request cash back on debit card transactions," the statement said.

On Nov. 16, 2019, the scheme ended when security cameras at a Framingham gas station and CVS caught the suspect using four cloned cards to withdraw money from victims' bank accounts at ATMs. He was arrested the same night at the Concord Rotary Gulf gas station, "where he was tampering with a fuel pump after the gas station had closed," the statement said.

Police found "four cloned cards from the ATM withdrawals earlier that night, as well as fuel pump keys, black latex gloves, four card skimming devices and the mobile phone Naranjo Rodriguez used to gain access to victims' credit and debit card information," the statement said.

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Naranjo Rodriguez was arrested and charged in March 2020 and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2020. During his hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for May 11, 2023.

Pending his sentencing, Naranjo Rodriguez faces the following:

  • Aggravated identity theft: two years in prison, up to one year of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000

  • Bank fraud: up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised released and a $1 million fine

  • Wire fraud: up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine

  • Possessing device-making equipment: sentence of up to 15 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine

  • Possessing 15 or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices: sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine

​United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Andrew Murphy, special agent in charge of the United States Secret Service, Boston Field Office made the announcement. Special assistance was provided by police departments in Raynham, Concord and Lunenburg, Massachusetts; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Portland, Maine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred M. Wyshak III of Rollins’ Organized Crime & Gang Unit is prosecuting the case.

Staff writer Namu Sampath can be reached at nsampath@enterprisenews.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @namusampath. Thank you, subscribers. You make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Brockton Enterprise.

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This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Raynham, Taunton: Man pleads guilty in gas station skimming scheme