WESTMINISTER, Calif. – Two men were charged yesterday with skimming more than $150,000 from credit card holders with the use of phony credit card readers, or skimmers.
Police say as much as $20,000 of the theft was from members of SchoolsFirst FCU, which traced the transactions to several 99 Cents Only budget stores.
After the credit union tip, police found fraudulent card readers at stores across Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties.
The suspects were caught on security cameras bringing large turkey pans and bulk packs of paper towels to the register and stacking them in front of the card reader to conceal the scheme. One of the men would swap the reader, shielded from view, while the other handled the transaction, the warrant states.
