Chinese Waiters Arrested in Credit Card Scheme

NEW YORK – More than a dozen waiters in Chinatown and in Chinese restaurants in the northeast were arrested Friday and charged with stealing more than $3 million from the credit cards of more than 1,000 unsuspecting diners. The waiters stole the information off of diners’ cards using handheld skimmers, then shared the information for use in making bogus cards, according to authorities. The cards were used to buy high-end electronic equipment, which was sold to electronics and computer stores in Queens. An indictment obtained by The Credit Union Journal shows twelve men and one woman were charged Friday, including alleged ringleader De-Ziang Huang, 34, from Brooklyn. Police seized $200,000 in cash, giant flat-screen televisions, a cache of Rolex watches and Luis Vuitton and Gucci handbags when they raided his apartment last week. Waiters were paid $35 to $50 for each card they skimmed. The information was used to encode magnetic stripes on high quality forged credit card blanks. The stolen information was used to create several different cards on each identity. As much as $20,000 was charged on each of the counterfeit cards, drawn on both bank and credit union accounts, authorities said. The ring flew ‘shoppers’ all around the east coast to make the cards purchases on trips that included overnight hotel stays, car rentals and airline flights.