2024-03-27 16:00:23
SECURE. THE. NORTH. BORDER.
This is why I do not ignore illegal crossing at the north border. The ones I’ve written about cover people tied to the Romanian mob.
Here are a few:
Now we know why the mob had people cross the border. I wish I caught this news earlier. Guess I need a new Google alert:
Debit card skimmers have long been problematic at gas stations and ATMs. Now a highly organized network of crooks is branching out.
“They’ll have people sitting outside a Walmart or a Target, and it looks like they’re panhandling,” prosecutors told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes they’ll have a couple of kids. And they are actually using Bluetooth technology that’s connected to the skimmers inside the stores. So it’s like a two for one, getting cash that people give them and stealing the numbers off the skimmers.”
Officials made major busts in December and January, but they believe the criminals have doubled down.
They think the criminals “could be raking in $9 million a month.”
In California…in January:
A suspect in Brea had $27,000 cash and 42 cloned cards.
During a search in Seal Beach, investigators uncovered more than 200 cloned cards and $14,000 stuffed in a suspect’s glove box. That suspect made repeated trips to a convenience store ATM to make illegal withdrawals, officials said.
The CalWORKs program provides cash aid to dependent families. It has been the frequent target of scammers and thieves and is drained of millions of dollars in fraud cases every year.
Although the crimes might not appear to be violent, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said these crimes leave many victims in their wake.
“The victims are single mothers struggling to put a roof over their children’s’ heads and food on the table and hardworking people who need a helping hand who find themselves standing at the checkout line with bags full of groceries only to be humiliated when they find that they have no money in their account because a thief has surreptitiously taken everything,” Spitzer said.
In San Jose, those connected to the Romanian mob target the elderly Asians and Indians.
Police say a group of men and women in a car or SUV will ask for directions, engage in a conversation and thank the victim – while slyly taking their jewelry and replacing it with fakes.
San Jose police also said Romanian organized criminal suspects have posed as general contractors, roofers or plumbers.
San Jose authorities arrested two men allegedly connected to the Romanian mob in November.
The policer found $13,000 dollars with them along with “three vehicles and evidence that may be linked to Facebook Marketplace scams, credit card skimming and money laundering.”
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