RESEDA : College Student Arrested in Credit Card Fraud Ring

A 19-year-old Reseda college student has been arrested on suspicion of heading a ring of thieves who used credit cards with altered magnetic strips to fraudulently make nearly $100,000 in purchases, police said Wednesday.

Ali Mojaddam was arrested Tuesday after police searched his apartment and found electronics equipment, clothing and other merchandise that are believed to have been purchased with altered credit cards, Detective Julio Nieves said. Also found by police was a home computer and an encoding device used to alter the magnetic coding on credit cards, he said.

Nieves said that Mojaddam, a Pierce College student who was taking computer classes, worked at a shoe store in the Northridge Fashion Center and used his position there to gain valid credit card numbers. He is also suspected of receiving numbers from friends who worked in the mall and other stores in the San Fernando Valley.

He then used his computer and encoder to put the valid numbers on the magnetic strips on the back of stolen cards or those belonging to himself and his friends, the investigator said.