Yuba County Walmart scammers identified, believed to have committed same scam in Southern California, DA’s Office says
(FOX40.COM) — Two men have been sentenced to serve a year in jail after an investigation revealed them responsible for attempting to scam a Yuba County Walmart by placing a credit card skimmer at self-checkout registers in the store, according to the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s Office said Romanian nationals Alexandru Capatina and Leontin Ionut, who will also serve two years on formal probation, also committed the same scam in Southern California before they brought it to Yuba County.
According to the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office, a call was made to the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department on Feb. 11 by a Walmart loss prevention employee with surveillance video showing two men placing a credit card skimmer on a self-checkout register.
Skimming device found in Yuba County spawns fraud investigation
The same Walmart employee also obtained a video of the men getting into a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which allowed Yuba County deputies to get essential license plate information that led them to a house in Sacramento believed to be owned by the suspects, the DA’s Office said.
Detectives confirmed the Sacramento residence where the two men were living and, with the help of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, served a search warrant to the home on Feb. 27. During the search, detectives seized 46 Visa gift cards and $4,627 in cash.
During their investigation, Yuba County detectives learned that the two men had installed card skimmers at a Walmart in Yuba City, a Dollar General in Live Oak, along with the skimmer placed at the Walmart in Linda.
“Both Ionut and Capatina spent time in Mexico before entering the United States illegally about eight months before their arrests,” the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office said. “While both men deny any affiliation with organized crime, their skimmer operation in the Sacramento region is almost identical to dozens of skimmer operations in Southern California with ties to organized crime in Romania.”
The Yuba County DA’s Office said the men committed the same scam in Riverside County, located in Southern California, which was learned when a Sutter County investigator saw a bulletin about two men who were arrested for using a credit card skimmer and compared the booking photos with the previously gathered surveillance video.
“Thank you to the [Yuba County Sheriff’s Department] for your hard work for our community. Without your hard work, these criminals would still be installing skimmers and stealing from our residents,” the DA’s Office said.
How do skimmers steal credit card information? Northern California police warn of scam
A skimming device or “skimmer” is a device that is placed on ATMs to illegally extract people’s bank card information and any information about their identities. As people pay for items by inserting their bank cards, the skimmer records their bank account, bank card number, and personal information onto a sim card.
The Yuba County DA’s Office said that in this case, the devices appeared to be a frame of an ATM.
“Suspects don’t even need to remove the frame to obtain the information, [and will] pull the information from the sim card in the skimmer with a Bluetooth connection,” the DA’s Office added.
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