Suspected fraudsters scammed 50 people and Burbank bank of $85,000 using skimmer and camera
One mid-August morning, two suspected fraudsters walked up to an ATM in Burbank carrying a razor-thin skimmer and a pinhole camera.
In less than five minutes, they installed the skimmer — which reads and stores bank card information — into the card slot and stuck the camera above the machine to catch people typing their PIN numbers.
After dark, they returned to collect the tools for their scheme, which Burbank police believe stretched across Los Angeles County, bilking or trying to bilk U.S. Bank and its customers of more than $500,000.
In Burbank alone, police said, the scam cost 50 people and the bank $85,000.
“The way it was done, it was almost undetectable,” said Burbank Police Sgt. Claudio Losacco.
Investigators this week caught the two men — identified as Ferenc Szekely, 42, of Las Vegas, and Alexsandru Barbu, 54, of Studio City — after surveilling a Torrance bank where the duo had also allegedly installed a skimmer.
That mid-August morning in Burbank, the pair left the devices in a U.S. Bank ATM located at 1750 W. Olive Ave.
They returned the following morning, and the next, to quickly reinstall the skimmer and camera, as each evening, they’d come to get their equipment back.
Using the stolen account data, the suspects reportedly created phony ATM cards and used them to withdraw $85,000 from several ATMs throughout the county. Police logged another $233,000 of declined transactions.
On Monday, roughly two weeks after the Burbank incidents, a U.S. Bank employee noticed a skimmer in an ATM in Torrance. Security footage showed it was the same two men who put it there.
Burbank police knew the pair would be back that night, so they waited by the bank.
At 11 p.m., the pair showed up.
Investigators arrested them, and recovered the skimmer and camera from the ATM.
Szekely and Barbu were each charged with one count of multiple identifying-information theft and five counts of second-degree commercial burglary, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. On Thursday, they pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Szekely is being held without bail, while Barbu is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, according to Los Angeles County jail records.
Burbank police urged people to be vigilant during transactions at ATMs and gas pumps, to look out for altered devices and to check bank account statements for unauthorized charges.
“The best thing you can do is catch any suspicious activity as soon as possible,” Losacco said.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
