STRATEGIC PARTNERS
October 22, 2002
BOSTON -- Two foreign nationals charged with rigging Boston-area ATMs with a skimming device to steal customers' PINs are each being held on $2 million cash bail, according to a report in the Boston Herald.
(See related story Boston police arrest two Colombian nationals in ATM skimming skam)
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Taj K. McCree told Dorchester District Court Judge David Donnellan that investigators have not determined the true identities of Jose Granado, 22, and Adriana Venuzio, 25, who came to the U.S. two weeks ago through Miami. When the couple was arrested on Oct. 18, Granado had two Venezuelan passports in two different names and Venuzio had passports from Venezuela and Italy.
According to McCree, the device the couple attached to the still undetermined number of ATMs was ordered via the Internet and picked up by the couple in Miami. Working up to 20 hours a day, the couple attached the device to ATMs in Boston, Newton, Lowell, Braintree, Weston and Milton, with a sign telling the customer the regular ATM was down and to use the alternate device.
When customers swiped their ATM or credit cards through the device, it recorded their personal information that the couple then downloaded to a computer, McCree said.
The Boston Police Department's Major Crimes Unit began an investigation after it was approached by at least one bank that said one of its busiest ATMs had no activity for a number of hours.
McCree and Boston police Detective Steven Blair said investigators identified the couple through their rental car from Logan International Airport, and they were spotted in Dedham on Oct. 18 by an off-duty detective.
The car, which McCree said was paid for with a stolen credit card number, contained a skimming device, a computer, floppy disks and the passports.
The defendants are charged with obtaining property over $250 by trick, receiving stolen property, two counts of conspiracy and identity fraud.
McCree said investigators have ATM security photographs of the couple installing the recording device at a Citizens Bank.
