3 Arrested in Credit Card Fraud Ring : Crime: Suspects allegedly used forgeries to buy computer equipment and resell it for profit.

U.S. Secret Service agents and police detectives from as far away as Las Vegas have been investigating a man suspected of using forged credit cards to buy computer equipment and then reselling it locally and overseas, authorities said Monday.

Secret Service agents Friday tracked down Walter Randall Shaw, 57, of Chino Hills, to the Fountain Valley Inn, where police arrested him. Shaw then led investigators to a 20-year-old accomplice from Westminster, who police suspect made hundreds of forged credit cards at his home.

Police say the pair, along with a Huntington Beach man, defrauded banks and credit card holders of about $250,000.

“This is a pretty good-sized, decent bust,” said Fountain Valley Police Detective Sara Long.

Long said Shaw is scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court in Westminster on several counts of credit card forgery. He was being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Tin Tri Nguyen, a suspected gang member from Westminster, was released on bail Saturday. He also faces several counts of credit card fraud, Long said.

Police also arrested Tri Dong Nguyen, 19, of Huntington Beach. Long said the Tustin Police Department is handling his case. Tustin police detectives could not be reached for comment.

Long said investigators believe bank employees slipped valid credit card numbers, as well as account descriptions and Social Security numbers, to Tin Tri Nguyen. He then allegedly used encoding and magnetic striping machines to make fake credit cards, Long said. Police also allege that he forged driver’s licenses to be used with the credit cards.

Shaw allegedly used the fake credit cards to buy laptop computers, laser printers and other computer equipment at stores where clerks who were in on the scheme accepted the forged cards, Long said. That equipment would then be resold for a profit, she said.

Shaw, who is listed as a nutritionist on his voter registration record, was allegedly using a fake credit card when he was arrested Friday morning at the Fountain Valley Inn. Secret Service agents, who had been following his trail for several months, told Fountain Valley police where Shaw was, and they arrested him.

Long said Shaw then told police that Tin Tri Nguyen was supplying him with the forged cards. She said Nguyen cooperated with investigators, leading them to his home, where investigators confiscated stolen credit cards, blank credit cards, a personal computer and counterfeiting machinery.

“It wasn’t until Friday that . . . the person manufacturing the credit cards was identified,” Long said. “We got the second half of it and it all came into place.”