Posted on 02/19/2006 7:32:20 AM PST by Liz
Plainclothes transit cops eating lunch — agog as a dandily dressed Brooklyn man stuffed piles of cash from an ATM into a gym bag — ended up nabbing a key player in a $4 million international identity-theft ring.
What began as a hankering for grilled chicken could be the coffin nail for the ring that has ripped off countless consumers and banks.
Feds had been investigating the syndicate with little luck. They knew people were stealing the bank and credit-card account information and PIN numbers of consumers from all over the US........
But a blue-plate special of a big break came on Thursday, during the lunch rush at Trolley's Restaurant on 42nd Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues.
The four cops sat down at their usual table just after noon. Shortly after the hungry men ordered — they noticed the handsome, brown-haired man.
Andrei Potupa, 29, was wearing expensive Hugo Boss blazer, stylishly paired with black jeans and sneakers.
The Russian immigrant was standing at the restaurant's ATM, inserting blank card after card and withdrawing handfuls of money at a time, police sources said. "The minute he stopped, they went after him and grabbed him at the door," said Paul Vasiliadis, a Trolley's employee.
"It was an awful surprise [for him] when they got to the door and grabbed him. He was pale white." Cops then rummaged through his bag and found stacks of $20 bills, Vasiliadis said.
He had 52 of the gray blank cards in the bag, along with $7,504 in cash.
Cops said he's been hitting ATMs in diners, delis and bank branches with account information from unwitting victims, some as far away as the Midwest.
Recently, he traded his 2004 silver Porsche for a brand new 2006 Cayenne that cost him $69,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The lowlifes are greeted here with all kinds of tax-paid goodies and job set-asides......pretending to be "victims".
They are into all kinds of frauds---billion dollar staged auto accidents, Medicare/Aid fraud, insurance fraud, ID theft, securities fraud......you name it.
Sniffle---now that we've outed the scoundrels, they'll have to kill us----sob.
(Yawn) I'm so scared (snore-zzzzz). Not to worry fellow posters, I contacted the FBI, the CIA, Interpol, Scotland Yard, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Mossad, and the US DOJ........and I named names.
If you ever need a safe house ...
Aw, that's sweet.........oh, wait, gimmee the address.........a black helicopter just landed on my lawn.
Russian mobsters are the most brazen, ruthless, conniving lowlifes. The History Channel's excellent expose of the Russian crooks pulled no punches. How they emigrate from Russia, go to Israel to pick up all the freebies, then come to the USA----where the leeches attach themselves to US taxpayers claiming "asylum from persecution--settling in the cesspool called Little Odessa, Brooklyn, the center of criminal activities. ==
Everything is true except they are NOT russians. They are jews from Odessa, Ukraine.
But cloning cards isnt enough. You need the PIN numbers to get cash. The piece doesn't explain how those were obtained.
Local ATM Cardholders Hit By Fraud
College Station resident J.D. Kumpe said he was suspicious Thursday when his debit card was declined at two different gas pumps. His suspicion turned to shock, however, when his wife checked their Aggieland Credit Union account online and found a negative balance of more than $600.
The cause of the negative balance - and the reason Kumpe's debit card was declined - was four ATM withdrawals from St. Petersburg, Russia.
"The person had just gone to an ATM and, in a matter of five minutes or so, took everything we had," he said Friday.
Kumpe was one of more than 30 Aggieland Credit Union customers who reported fraudulent ATM withdrawals from Eastern European countries, mostly in Russia and Lithuania, to the bank since Wednesday, said Vice President Gregg Baird. Other fraudulent withdrawals have come from New York City, he said.
College Station police have taken "less than 50" reports of cases involving fraudulent ATM withdrawals in Eastern Europe, said Lt. Mark Langwell, a spokesman for the department. Langwell said a specific number could not be given Friday, because new reports were being filed throughout the day.
Similar reports of fraudulent withdrawals were taken from three other banking institutions - Wells Fargo, Brazos Valley Schools Credit Union and First National Bank of Bryan, Langwell said.
One such report had been filed Friday with the Bryan Police Department, Officer Jillian Garza said. The victim reported three withdrawals - two from St. Petersburg and one from New York City - with a loss totaling about $2,300 from his Aggieland Credit Union account, she said.
No reports were taken Friday by the Brazos County Sheriff's Department, Chief Deputy Jim Mann said.
Mervin Peters, community banking president of Wells Fargo in Bryan, said Friday that he was not aware of any fraudulent withdrawals that affected Wells Fargo customers.
A spokeswoman for Brazos Valley Schools Credit Union said the institution had no comment and then hung up without identifying herself.
Efforts to reach First National Bank officials were unsuccessful Friday.
It was unclear whether the transactions targeted only local account holders or if similar scams were happening elsewhere. FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap said Friday that no similar reports had been taken by the Houston bureau.
Baird said account information and PIN numbers most likely were obtained using a skimmer, a device that captures information from the magnetic strip on a debit card. Skimmers can be attached to ATM machines so the information is collected when customers swipe their cards, he said.......
They have an insider at the bank who sells them...that's one possibility mentioned in the article. But they have other methods, such as electronically capturing your PIN when you're at the ATM. Happened to me once, but I got my 400 bucks back from the bank the next day.
Thanks for answers...
"Recently, he traded his 2004 silver Porsche for a brand new 2006 Cayenne that cost him $69,000."
Actually it didn't cost HIM a cent.
The scumbag was mighty busy.
When they searched Potupa's home the cops found another 105 cards, some $70,000 in cash, electronics, a money counter, jewelry, receipts and addresses of banks....
In his 2006 gray Porsche — parked near the restaurant — was a stun gun and $497......
Cool link. Was that in the article or did you find it?
I'm pretty positive the Russian "Mafia" isn't made up entirely of Jews.
Sidenote - here in FL a surprising number of hotels have Russian staff.
Since so many 'financial service' institutions have off-shored their call centers and data processing centers to faraway lands, I'm sure getting PINs and such is a helluva lot easier than it used to be. Thanks to the one-world 'free' trade types trying to save a few bucks.
Cautionaries: watch closely when you hand your card over at a gas station or a restaurant----and if possible have them scan the card in your sight.
Handed my card over to pay for gas----tried, but could not see where the guy took it----then I overheard him speaking Russian. Panicsville. I got my card, rushed homne, and cancelled it, just in case.
Know your role. Everything is a jewish cabal. Don't you know this?!!!!
Nice find---thanks for posting---nice contribution to the thread.
From Wikipedia, so who knows how accurate it is:
Composition
The Russian mafia is not limited to ethnic Russians, but to many nationalities from the former Soviet Union, most of which are now collectively known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. There are many stereotypes of the Russian mafia, including that it is dominated by Jews and Chechens, which is misleading.
Chechens indeed make up a disproportionate amount of Russian mafia members inside of Russia and Ukraine, and (arguably) Belarus. However, their presence is severely limited in other countries where the Russian mafia operates, notably America and Israel. Thus, while noticable in within the mafia's organization in Russia, Chechens play a small role in the Russian Mafia's overseas membership.
Russian Jews are also present in the Mafia structure, however the subject is complicated by several factors. First, more Jews are present in the Russian mafia's overseas operations than inside Russia because Russian Jews are more likely to successfully receive permission to immigrate via a political refugee status. Second, non-Jewish Russian mobsters often fraudulently claim Jewish ancestry in order to gain easier movement in and out of Israel (where the Russian Mafia has a large operating base). Conversely, some Jews in the mafia either actively hide or do not acknowledge their Jewish background for various reasons. Finally, many ethnic Russians have partial Jewish ancestry, which they may or may not acknowledge. Because of these factors, it impossible to tell the true number of Jews in the Russian mafia. And while they by no means dominate the organization, a significant number of Russian mafia members do have Jewish roots.
The Russian Mafia also has a multitude of other nationalities such Ukranians, Belorusians, Moldovans, Khazaks, Uzbeks, Georgians, Dagestanis, Armenians, and others. Additionally, countries such as Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Moldova have their own mafia organizations which have extensive links to the Russian mafia.
In the end, greed and ruthlessness counts for much more than one's nationality in the Russian mafia, whose bosses' main concern is profit, not politics.
The stereotypical Russian or foreign businessman, is a lucky entrepreneur who started from nearly nothing got rich through participation in the free market during the transition to capitalism.
Heheh......MSM covers Republicans only.
It's politically incorrect to report Russian crimes.....after all, these people are (sob) "victims."
They said in the article that he had a web site with pictures of himself on his recent Cambodian and Vietnamese trips--so I googled him and found it. I imagine it will be taken down very soon. This guy really loves himself--there are more pix of him on the web than of Paris Hilton...
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