Friday, November 19, 2010
Last updated 10:40 a.m. PT
Prosecutors have filed charges against two men believed to have defrauded hundreds of BECU members by "skimming" debit cards at Seattle-area ATMs.
Having filed IDd theft-related charges against the men, King County prosecutors contend Seattle resident Claudiu Flaviu Tudor and Mihai Podaru stole the account information of hundreds of BECU users during a sophisticated scheme that saw cameras and debit card skimmers attached to a Renton ATM.
"Only a small fraction of the victims in this case have been contacted thus far regarding their loses," Deputy Prosecutor Lisa Napoli O'Toole told the court. "Once the investigation is completed, hundreds of additional counts of identity theft may be charged."
In charging documents, Kirkland Detective Donald Carroll told the court that Tudor, 36, and Podaru, 31, are under investigation for similar incidents reported in Bellevue and Kirkland, and are associated with a man accused in a Puyallup theft.
Writing the court, Carroll detailed fraudulent activity at the Renton ATM with which Tudor and Podaru are presently charged.
For short periods over four days in September, the thieves attached a credit card skimmer to a BECU ATM at 4250 N.E. Fourth St. in Renton, Carroll told the court. At least 55 BECU members who used the ATM while the skimmer was in place have since experienced fraud on their accounts; the bank has lost $170,442 due to fraud on those accounts.
The thieves, Carroll continued, also had placed a camera over the ATM PIN pad to capture the personal identification numbers of those using the machine.
Card skimmers like those alleged to have been used at the Renton ATM are designed to fit over the ATM card slot in a manner that does not appear suspicious to those using the machine. The skimmers capture identifying information contained on a card's magnetic strip; that information can then be imprinted on forged credit cards or used to make purchases online.
Surveillance video taken at the machine showed Tudor and Podaru place the skimming device, the detective continued. Carroll told the court he was already investigating other incidents in which Tudor and Podaru were suspects, so the Renton case was sent to his office.
On Nov. 6, officers with five local police departments, the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tailed Tudor and Podaru to a Renton hotel, where they were arrested, Carroll continued. A skimming device designed to fit BECU ATMs was found in Padaru's possession.
Multiple passports were found in Podaru's possession, O'Toole noted, and both defendants appeared to have large sums of cash available to them.
Tudor has been charged with first-degree theft, improperly obtaining financial information and three counts of identity theft. Podaru has been charged with first-degree theft, improperly obtaining financial information and a single count of first-degree identity theft.
Both men remain jailed.
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