NEEDHAM, Mass. — Two men were arrested Sunday in connection to a skimming scheme that led to more than $226,000 being fraudulently withdrawn from Webster Bank ATMs in one weekend.
Bank officials told police that they were targeted between July 15 and 16 at about 30 ATMs, with most of the account holders being TD Bank or Citizen’s Bank customers.
Fake credit gift cards are often created using a skimming device at an ATM. A device that looks like the legitimate magnetic strip reader reads the swipe, and often a small camera records the person inputting their pin number.
The officer’s report noted that the thieves will take the data and load it onto any card, including gift cards. They will then use the duplicate cards to get cash at ATMs.
A Webster Bank fraud prevent officer said the bank saw the same six people in surveillance video from the weekend of the fraudulent activity, and including the two men arrested on Sunday.
The fraud team set up fraud alerts to be notified of any more activity, and on Sunday was alerted at the Needham location on 1000 Highland Ave. and at 793 Beacon St. in Newton.
The bank official gave a description of the man captured on ATM surveillance to Needham police and officers found a man matching the description nearby, later identified as Constatin Tansanu. He said he had been using an ATM and provided a Romanian ID. Police said they saw multiple gift cards and a large amount of cash in Tansanu’s wallet as he opened it.
The officer also said that he noticed the gift cards had a magnetic strip on the rear, which can be loaded with the same information as an ATM card. There were also allegedly white stickers on the back of each card, with numbers handwritten on them. The officer said he assumed them to be pin numbers, and deduced the cards were fakes.
The officer arrested Tansanu and during his booking, police said they seized nine gift cards, $1,716 and a Webster Bank ATM receipt. Tansanu was charged with identity fraud, possession of counterfeit credit card press and improper use of a credit card.
Webster Bank sent Boston 25 News the following statement on the incident:
“Webster Bank fraud protection team proactively alerted police of abnormal activity at our ATMs which resulted in arrests, and did not impact any Webster customer accounts.”
Meanwhile in Newton, officers arrived to the Webster Bank ATM and found a man matching the surveillance video description close by. The officer said the man spoke broken English and handed him a receipt from DHS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration, which stated that he has applied for political asylum. It also said his name was Marius Firuti and listed an Arlington, Texas address.
The officer pat frisked the man, and noticed a large bulge in his pocket, which turned out to be $700 in cash and six gift cards.
The officer read him his Miranda Rights in Romanian from a department issued card and spoke to the bank manager, who explained the situation with the fake gift cards.
Firuti was arrested and charged with four or more fake gift cards.
The Romanian embassy was notified for both of the men’s arrests.
Cox Media Group
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