Posted on 10/19/2017 3:34:45 PM PDT by BBell
An effort to avoid paying a $7.41 bill at a Waffle House in tiny Pearl River has led to the arrest of two out-of-state men and the discovery of a sophisticated interstate identity theft scheme that is now being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.
The two suspects are accused of installing credit card skimming devices at gas pumps, which allowed them to steal credit card information from unwitting victims. The information was being used to create counterfeit credit cards that were used to make fraudulent purchases or sold to other individuals, according to the Pearl River Police Department. Investigators have traced the scam to its base in Los Angeles.
The investigation unfolded early Saturday (Oct. 14) when Pearl River Police were notified that two men had left a Waffle House without paying their bill and had fled in a U-Haul van. As officers were taking a report at the restaurant, Lt. Tommy Benasco and Officer Jay Simmons spotted a U-Haul van in the parking lot of a hotel nearby, police said.
As the two officers approached, one of the suspects, later identified as Richard A. Brown, 18, from Indiana, fled on foot and disappeared into a wooded area near Interstate 59. The second suspect, Stayshawn D. Stephens, 19, of California, was arrested in the parking lot. With the assistance of Slidell Police Officer Justin Stokes and police dog Scout, Brown was located and quickly apprehended in the woods.
Upon investigation, police discovered and seized from the two suspects several fake identification cards, counterfeit credit cards and credit card skimming devices. Also found was a Waffle House ticket for $7.41, police said.
The investigation further revealed that Stephens and Brown were recruited and hired by an unidentified person and had been flown into Louis Armstrong International Airport from different states. The two suspects
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
You could have pointed this out to the local cops - they might have been interested.
I'm all for life imprisonment for these identity thieves, but I could be talked into executions.
Two years in a row (last year and this year) I had my card hacked while I went on vacation to my home in Michigan. I am positive the hacking both times was done on gas pumps on the Ohio Turnpike.
Both times I was lucky to have had a large amount of cash I was using to buy remodeling supplies for the house in Michigan. I went up there a second time this year and I now only buy my gas with cash. I will never use a card for gas while traveling and will just have to waste the extra time pre-paying and going back to get my change.
Could you possibly tell me or post a picture of the “seals” you mention. I have no idea what that is and I have to pump my own gas using a credit card.
Just Google “gas pump seals” and it will show you.
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“I did think that was a witty remark.”
I agree. Just the right amount of sarcasm to fool the media!
There are card skimmers that do not have to be rigged to the pumps from the inside. If the seals are intact you should run your finger around the slot where you slide your card. It should be smooth and only the plastic rounded into the slot. The skimmer inserts will be sort of rough and they will move or may even fall out of the actual slot.
“Ebony and Ivory...”
There is a face plate on the face of the pump with a seam around it where it fits into the face. Somewhere around the border there is a paper seal stuck across the seam. Go to your nearest gas pump and look. You will recognize it immediately once you know what to look for. The ones in Florida seem to be about 3 inches long by maybe 3/4 inch.
Installers usually operate in pairs in a car. They drive up to the pump. One goes inside to distract the clerk. The other pops the faceplate off, installs the skimmer, and replaces the plate in less than a minute. But so far they have not figured out how to not break the seal or how to replace it with a fake one.
Those ‘lads’ must not pay attention.
When I was running ‘night and day’, I always managed to stop at a Waffle House when running through the small towns in the south.
You could almost make book that between 1-5 AM a ‘stranger’ in the town ‘Waffle House’ or ‘all night eatery’ would rate a ‘drop in’ from the Constable on Patrol —don’t know if the clerks called or Cop driving by just noticed a strange vehicle and had to check it out.
I told a cop. Cops usually know all about it but if they “bust” the clerk, well it is seldom the clerk who put in the skimmer and there are no fingerprints on the device. There is no one to arrest and there is another skimmer in place at a productive location same day. Skimmers are CHEAP. Just look for that seal, or more surely, pay cash. I normally use the same station every time because it is the one with non-ethanol at only a 50 cent premium. The other sources all charge 80 cents to a dollar. I’ve never had a problem there but now I do check for that seal.
Let me guess, the manager was one of them foreigners.
The clerks called. This particular waffle house is by I 59 and it’s by some motels. Lots of people coming and going.
Actually, no. She was a woman with a local accent and no apparent minority.
He will get a new name in prison. Playstayshawn.
:-)
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Thank you all for the explanations and help. I shall do my homework on this scam.
Doubt it was these two but some scumbag cleaned out my wife’s checking account Monday of over $900! Which is about what I would give to be alone in a room with them for about 15 minutes...
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