Police arrest Romanian man after skimmer found at another SLO County ATM
A Romanian man was arrested after a skimmer was allegedly found at a San Luis Obispo bank last week, the San Luis Obispo Police Department said in a news release Tuesday.
Multiple cities in San Luis Obispo County have been targeted with skimmer devices at bank ATMs over the past several months, police said. Most recently, skimmers have been found at a Bank of America ATM in Grover Beach and Bank of America ATM in San Luis Obispo.
The latest arrest comes a few weeks after two other Romanians, Catalin Constantinescu, 43, and Stefan Costache, 56, were arrested on suspicion of planting multiple skimming devices in a ATM in Grover Beach.
Skimmer devices are installed on card readers that collect card numbers, police said. Those involved will later recover the device and use the information to make fraudulent purchases or withdraw money.
In response to the incidents, local law enforcement agencies, including the San Luis Obispo, Atascadero and Grover Beach police departments and San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, created a task force to “proactively” conduct surveillance at multiple affected locations.
Police arrest 2 people suspected of planting card skimmers on SLO County ATM
Investigators found a skimmer on an ATM at Bank of America at 1102 Higuera St. in San Luis Obispo on Dec. 7. That morning, police said, they saw a male subject “actively removing the skimmer device to retrieve the harvested digital information.”
That man was later identified as Doru Marius Parvu.
The 46-year-old Romanian national was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor possession or use of a scanning device, felony identify theft and three felony burglary charges according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office jail inmate database.
Parvu remained in custody as of Tuesday afternoon without bail. Parvu originally was being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, police said, but later was given no bail.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office has not filed charges against Parvu as of Tuesday afternoon.
Police said customers can minimize their chances of having their information stolen with a quick visual scan, using the “tap” option or chip technology.
Skimming devices are often installed directly over, or inside ATMs, fuel pumps, or point-of-sale systems, police said. There will often be a covert camera that is affixed above the device to capture PIN codes.
The department encourage customers to report any suspicious device to their local law enforcement agency.
