100 card gift offer target

During the FBI's investigation of the Yugoslavian, Albanian, Croatian, and Serbian (YACS) commercial safe burglar groups, (1) investigators discovered a specialized theft crime problem perpetrated by some of these offenders. The crime pattern involved the theft of credit cards from the lockers of unsuspecting health club members while they exercised. Victims included both men and women. The thieves then used the stolen credit cards, sometimes within hours of the theft, to obtain cash at casinos. An examination of this crime problem, which persists today, can help investigators understand the modus operandi (MO) of these unique credit card thieves and offer some recommendations to help prevent thefts in the future.

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Overview

Beginning in the early to mid 1990s, those law enforcement agencies principally involved with investigations of criminal activity inside casinos began noticing an increase in the use of stolen credit cards to obtain cash from the cash-advance merchants in the casinos. The interesting common denominator in these investigations was that many of the credit cards used in the scam had been stolen from health club lockers. Investigators noted that the persons caught passing the cards were primarily of Yugoslavian or Albanian descent. The thieves' chance for successfully avoiding capture was aided by the fact that cardholders often did not notice the theft of the card until they received the monthly billing statement weeks after the actual theft. Victims would check their wallets and notice, for the first time, the credit card missing, but would be uncertain as to when or where the theft occurred. For example, a businessperson from Florida on a trip to New York stays at a hotel in Bergen Country, New Jersey. The hotel recommends a local health club that the person uses for a workout. The businessperson signs in as a dayuse guest, and, during that time, someone steals a credit card from the person's wallet. Afterward, the businessperson returns to Florida and, several weeks later, discovers unauthorized charges on one credit card. This represents the typical situation that confronts victims of these thefts as they report it to authorities.

Modus Operandi

Law enforcement reports, postarrest interviews, analysis of evidence obtained from search warrants, and intelligence gathering have made it possible to describe a typical health club credit card theft scenario. A group of between four to six thieves goes to a health club. At least one of them will be a member, sometimes under an alias, of the club the group targeted for locker thefts. Other coconspirators may sign in as guests of the member or may sign in on a dayuse basis. These thieves also target health clubs offering 1-weekfree, trial memberships. While the thieves usually do not all enter at the same time, they probably find the sign-in procedures familiar through previous surveillance. Undoubtedly, all of the thieves possess counterfeit identification in a fictitious name so as not to arouse suspicion if a health club employee asks for identification. Moreover, because guests entering health clubs also may have to sign a guest book or log, thieves often pay the nominal day-use fee in cash. They believe that health club employees keep this fee for personal use and do not record when guests come to use the facilities.

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Once the thieves enter the locker room, they separate into prearranged roles. At least one person will act as a "blocker" and lookout at the main entrance to the locker room. Other thieves will target certain lockers and will carry various "shims"--extremely thin pieces of metal cut to a small size--to "shim" open the combination padlocks on the lockers. A skilled "shimmer" can open these padlocks faster than a person who uses the combination. The shimmer may have the additional assistance of another blocker who may use the locker next to the targeted one to further screen the shimmer's efforts. The shims are so sharp that thieves usually wear bandages or pieces of tape to protect their fingers.

After opening the lock, the thieves carefully avoid disturbing the contents in the locker, looking only into the member's wallet to find any credit cards. They remove one or two of the credit cards, preferably from a wallet with many credit cards,

and note the name, address, and date of birth on the driver's license, but never take any cash. They replace the wallet exactly as they found it to avoid arousing any suspicion when the member returns to the locker. Thieves normally target several lockers at the health club, and more than one person usually shims at the same time. Thieves generally steal 15 to 20 credit cards either from one health club or from multiple health clubs before moving to the next phase of the scam.

Counterfeit Identification Manufacture

The next phase involves the thieves producing counterfeit identification to match the name on the credit card. In the early vintage of this scheme, thieves most commonly made counterfeit, non photo New Jersey driver's licenses to use at Atlantic City casinos. They employed these nonphoto licenses as backup identification (ID) that they would show inside the casinos to tellers who requested ID before providing cash to the person holding the credit card. More recent trends involve making counterfeit, color photo driver's licenses from different states. Thieves modified their MO after the casinos became aware of the nonphoto New Jersey licenses and began requiring photo ID as backup identification. Also, the thieves expanded their target area to include health clubs located in states without casinos. This required the thieves to manufacture counterfeit driver's licenses from many states.

The thieves always must know in advance exactly which person will serve as the "signer" inside the casino. Obviously, that same person's photo must appear on the counterfeit driver's license. Laptop computers, color scanners, and color printers have facilitated the production of such counterfeit documents. (2) The thieves usually complete the matching ID within a short time and then plan their travel to the casinos. If the casinos are nearby, they generally travel by car or van. If the casino is far away, the thieves, using aliases, fly on commercial aircraft. They never use stolen credit cards to purchase airline tickets when they fly to a distant location to steal or to pass credit cards.

The Casino Connection

Before using the cards at the casinos, the thieves, now a group of 10 to 15 people, make sure that the health club members have not reported the theft of the cards. To accomplish this, the thieves typically stop at a gas station/convenience store and buy a few gallons of gas at a self-service pump or make a small purchase at a gift shop in or near the casino. (3) If a problem arises, the thieves feign any knowledge and purchase the gas or gift with cash and then destroy the card. The thieves check all stolen cards prior to entering a casino.

The large group of thieves now breaks into smaller teams to begin passing the cards inside the casinos. This reduces the risk of detection by casino gaming commission law enforcement authorities or by private security personnel inside the establishment.

Casinos use different merchants to provide the cash-advance service. Essentially, a card holder uses the machine by inserting or swiping the credit card and then entering the desired amount of money. The service adds a small fee to that amount and, as long as sufficient credit remains on that credit card, generates a receipt. The card holder takes the receipt to a nearby teller window where the teller has received a similar approval for the transaction. The teller matches it with the receipt handed by the customer and asks to see the credit card, as well as backup ID, before giving the requested money, less the fee, to the customer.

The health club locker thieves who use the same service at the casino, but with stolen credit cards, do not know how much credit is available on a particular card. The thief may have to try different amounts, reducing the amount requested each time, before obtaining approval. Investigators can retrieve computerized records regarding these transactions and usually will find multiple attempts to obtain cash. Thieves may use the same card at different casinos until they reach the credit limit for that card. During this phase, the thieves maintain contact with each other through pagers and cell phones.

The Profit Split