w*******s
发帖数: 3417 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: wamgjames (胡志明胡志明互助), 信区: Military
标 题: 三中国人？（貌似像中文名字）在密歇根涉信用卡犯罪被捕
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Apr 7 16:41:31 2011, 美东)
Zhou Chen
Kang He
Shifu Lin
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/03/suspec
How men allegedly used stolen credit cards in $9,500 scheme at Meijer
Published: Friday, March 25, 2011, 8:08 AM Updated: Friday, March 25,
2011, 11:52 AM
By John Agar | The Grand Rapids Press The Grand Rapids Press
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AP File PhotoGRAND RAPIDS – Three men who traveled here from New York and
Pennsylvania are accused of encoding stolen credit card numbers onto other
cards to obtain thousands in stored-value cards, or “gift cards," from
Meijer Inc. stores.
The alleged plot lasted only a couple of days after Meijer workers on East
Beltine Avenue NE became suspicious and called police.
Kent County sheriff's detectives responded, and arrested the suspects in the
parking lot. In the suspects' car, police found $9,500 in pre-paid stored-
value cards, shopping bags containing packaging for the cards, and credit
and debit cards that had one account number on the front and a different
number encoded on the magnetic strip in back.
In the trunk, detectives found a magnetic strip reader/writer and four
laptop computers that typically are “used to encode account numbers onto
the magnetic strip on the access device,” David Dobb, a U.S. Secret Service
special agent, wrote in recently unsealed court records.
The suspects, Zhou Chen, Kang He and Shifu Lin, are expected to be arraigned
today in U.S. District Court on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud,
access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, records showed. Federal
authorities took the suspects into custody on Wednesday, and unsealed the
indictments.
Zhou Chen
Kang He
Shifu Lin
The allegations are similar to a scheme last year in which five Detroit men,
using stolen credit-card information and an encoding machine, bought gift
cards at large retailers throughout Michigan and the Midwest before Kent
County sheriff's deputies, who stopped their car for a broken taillight,
became suspicious about numerous Meijer bags containing gift cards.
The suspects in that case were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three
to 7½ years.
In the recent case, Chen, who lives in Pennsylvania, and He and Lin, both
residents of the state of New York, drove here Jan. 7 in Chen's car “for
the purpose of making unauthorized use of stolen valid credit card account
numbers to purchase merchandise and stored value cards from merchants such
as Meijer,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher O'Connor wrote in an
indictment.
“The card encoder allowed the conspirators to place valid credit card
numbers onto plastic cards with a magnetic strip, thereby manufacturing
fraudulent credit cards,” he wrote.
Video surveillance showed the suspects at Meijer stores in the Grand Rapids
area on Jan. 10 and 11. Records documented a dozen transactions that netted
$4,000.
Meijer was likely targeted because it provides self-serve checkouts, which
Dobb, the Secret Service agent, said “further reduces the risk to the
perpetrator.”
He said that the technique is common, a “preferred way for individuals
committing access device fraud and identity theft to fraudulently use credit
account numbers and other identifying information of victims. ...Once the
programmed value of these cards has been exhausted, the physical card can be
re-encoded with credit card account numbers of victims and reused to commit
additional fraudulent transactions.”
A search-warrant affidavit outlined allegations, but did not say where the
account numbers originated. In the case involving the Detroit suspects,
investigators said stolen numbers were linked to Russia.
“In this case, it is reasonable to conclude that the suspects were using
one or more of the lap computers in conjunction with the magnetic strip
reader/writer in order to encode data onto magnetic strips of access devices
,” Dobb wrote.
He said that the defendants, who were provided Mandarin interpretation at
initial court appearances, “eventually admitted that they were fraudulently
using access devices to purchase items at Meijer stores in the Grand Rapids
area … but denied any knowledge of the magnetic strip reader/writer device
found in the trunk of the vehicle.”
A Meijer spokesman declined comment with the investigation on-going. |
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