A Bulgarian national will spend at least three years in prison for a technically clever identity theft in which he affixed skimming devices and cameras to Chase ATMS in Union Square and Astor Place last year.
Nikolai Ivanov, 31, appeared to tear up as he was led off to prison after being sentenced this morning in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Prosecutors say Ivanov and his brother Jordan — who remains at large and is believed to be in Canada — rooked nearly 1,500 debit card users out of more than $180,000 in the crafty scam.
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
The brothers would approach ATMs as if they were customers, and instead use double-sided tape to affix pinhole cameras and skimming devices that were spray painted silver to match the color of the machines, officials charged.
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An example of a skimmign device.
“Unless you were an expert, the skimmer was virtually undetectable,” Nikolai Ivanov’s lawyer, Rene Medina, said after the sentencing.
The skimmer was noticeable only as a green lip attached to the card slot, and would record the information on the magnetic strip of the customer’s card.
Meanwhile, the pinhole camera would record the pin number.
The brothers would leave the devices in place for about four to six hours at a time, typically in broad daylight, prosecutors said. They’d pass the card info on to unnamed co-conspirators, who would use it to encode blank cards used to make purchases and cash withdrawals in Arizona, Illinois and locations in Canada.
Prosecutors credited eagle-eyed bank officials with finding the devices, and helping catch the crooks by alerting cops who staked out a compromised ATM. Jordan Ivanov and a third man, limo driver Dimitar Stamatov, were arrested in May after removing their devices and loading them into a car, prosecutors said.
In a deal identical to Nikolai Ivanov’s, Stamatov has pleaded guilty to scheme to defraud and grand larceny and has been promised a three-to-nine year prison term.
