SHARP-EYED COP STOPS FOR COFFEE, BUSTS MAJOR ATM SCAM RING

NBC 10.com, PA

July 27 2007

NBC 10 investigative reporter Lu Ann Cahn reported weeks ago that
dozens of people in the area were reporting hundreds of dollars being
stolen out of their bank accounts.

Good police work finally gave authorities a major break in the case,
Cahn reported. Two men, Artur Grigoryan and Artur Harutyunyan, have
been arrested.

Police said they are experts at stealing ATM information and money
without stealing ATM cards.

Sources told the NBC 10 Investigators that the Secret Service and the
FBI had been looking for the two men for months. They’re suspected
of being a part of an Armenian organized crime ring that has been
moving from state to state.

"It’s slick. It’s frightening," said scam victim Rosemary Murphy.

The men allegedly took $800 a day out of Murphy’s bank account for
five days in a row before she caught on. She was about one of 50
victims in the Tredyffrin area alone.

Detective Brian Hughes of the Tredyffrin police sent pictures of the
possible suspects to all neighboring police departments.

Cpl. Declan Coyle of the Upper Merion police was getting coffee
Saturday morning at a King of Prussia Wawa when he saw Grigoryan at
the ATM making several transactions.

"He realized this looks like one of the people from that photo,"
said Detective Sgt. Jeffrey McCabe.

Affidavits show detectives found evidence of the thefts in an apartment
near King of Prussia. Police said it’s a skimming operation.

The NBC 10 Investigators have shown how this works: Skimming devices
are put right on the front of ATM machines. They record your PIN and
all of your information without you even knowing it.

Link: NBC 10 Investigators’ ATM Safety Tips

In this case, the men are accused of doing so mostly at Wawa ATMs
located in the tri-state area, transferring the information onto gift
cards and using the newly encoded cards to get to people’s money.

Grigoryan is from California but was staying at local hotels, the
latest being the Wayne Hotel in Wayne, authorities said. Harutyunyan
has lived on the 500 block of W. DeKalb Pike in King of Prussia for
the past three years.

Both are currently in the Montgomery County prison.

Tredyffrin police held a meeting Tuesday between investigators and
representatives from area banks. Preliminary losses indicate that
about $500,000 in cash withdrawls have been associated with the
suspects since June.

Police said they suspect it’s much bigger than that, as the men are
believed to have been involved in these operations since 2005, and
there are probably many more victims in the tri-state area.

What can you do to protect yourself from thefts like this?

"If you go into a store and you happen to give your credit card to
a cashier, and you see them take it to another location or under the
desk, maybe … the red light should go on there," McCabe said.

If you have a combined credit and debit card, it is much safer when
making purchases in stores to use it as a credit card, Cahn reported.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress