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As if the largesse extended to vast populations of the unemployed and under-employed by Federal and State of California agencies wasn’t enough of a headache for taxpayers and administrators of the programs doling out millions of dollars in welfare and assistance payments, law enforcement agencies are now faced with crooks stealing money from individual accounts by the use of captured CalFresh and CalWORKS electronic benefit transfer cards. According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Detective Doree Milazzo, recent scam operators in California have set the state back to the tune of $60,000 in losses.
Facing a wave of identity theft targeting Camarillo residents, the VCSD Camarillo Investigations Bureau has discovered that ATM machines have been capturing legitimate debit card information through the use of “deep insert skimmers.”
That led detectives to observe 23-year-old Florentin Albert Mirica and 29-year-old Nicolae Adrian Masu, both residents of Anaheim, Ca. on the morning of May 10 th as they “behaved in a manner consistent with installing ATM skimmers” in the City of Camarillo. It was just after 8:00 a.m. when they were contacted by deputies and “gave consent to the search of their vehicle.”
That search led to the discovering of “manufactured faceplates, “deep insert” credit card skimmers, and tools used to install the skimmers.” Both suspects were taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where they were booked on charges of conspiracy, fraudulent use of a card scanning device, and attempted identity theft. While their bail amounts were unspecified, “due to the nature of the crimes” a bail increase was imposed by the court.
