Man gets 3 years for stealing credit card info at gas pumps | #phishing | #scams | #hacking | #aihp

NORFOLK, Va. — Author’s note: The video above explains offers way to detect and avoid email phishing scams.

A Cuban man was sentenced to over three years in prison Friday for his involvement in stealing other people’s credit card information, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 38-year-old Denis Monsibaez Diaz worked with others — all Cuban nationals — to place skimming devices on gas pumps in Northampton County.

The devices were capable of recording credit and debit bank card numbers, along with the PINs, of customers that used their cards at the gas pumps.

In April and May 2018, using the stolen card information, Diaz and others went to different Harris Teeter grocery stores and other places to withdraw money from the victims’ bank accounts and purchase prepaid debit gift cards.

The group was attributed with trying to steal over $200,000 in a matter of days as a result of those gas pump skimmers.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Diaz is the seventh defendant sentenced for this conspiracy. The group was attributed with aggregate losses of over $5 million over several years.

Many of the people involved had significant criminal histories involving the same conduct and were known to travel the country perpetrating this scheme.

The FBI and U.S. Marshals Service seized several vehicles and other items purchased by the defendants with funds stolen through credit cards, including a boat and luxury vehicles. Several other suspects are still at large.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office encourages people that fell victim to a scam to report fraud to local law enforcement, and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.