Credit card skimming scheme cracked in Gwinnett

(Duluth, Georgia) Gwinnett County Police have ended a credit card skimming operation that was happening at Studio Movie Grill 3850 Venture Drive in Duluth over the last three months – at least since May 2017, GCPD says. This particular scheme ended with the arrest of Tiffany Webb, 23, an employee of the business, along with a former employee Ricardo Motanez Blalock, 26, AKA Monte. Officials with GCPD warn that anyone who has visited the business during since May 2017 very likely had their financial identity compromised.

“Victims should immediately contact their bank and have them issue a new account number with a new ATM card number,” GCPD noted in a press release. “In addition, report the crime to law enforcement.  Also, as a reminder, businesses and those engaged with point-of-sale transactions should be alert at all times for those using these skimmers or similar devices. As always, if you see anything suspicious please do not hesitate to contact your local law enforcement for follow up.”

Tiffany Webb was taken into custody and charged with possession of tools for the commission of a crime and eight counts of financial Identity Fraud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ricardo Blalock had not been taken into  custody by Aug. 2. He is charged with eight counts of financial identity fraud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

GCPD said the scam conducted by Webb and Blalock included theft of credit cards and the subsequent use of those cards without the knowledge and permission of the owners.  Webb told officers that, while working as a server, she would turn over credit card information to Blalock at the end of her shift in exchange for $1000 in cash each week. Detectives took possession of amini DX3 portable magnetic stripe card reader/data collector/credit magstripe 3 track de-coder that was used to perpetrate this crime.

“The credit card reader device is the world’s smallest portable magnetic card reader on the market. It has an internal rechargeable built-in battery, which is specially designed for data collection anytime and anywhere without a computer,” GCPD report. “It can store 8000+ ATM card track data.”

So far, eight victims have contacted GCPD but managers from the business say the duo had access to hundreds of ATM cards during that three month period so the number of victims could be pretty large.

 

Anyone who