August 4, 2009
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News: Skimming Thief Caught By Customer
A Chinese restaurant cashier was arrested on charges of using a scanning device to commit credit card fraud. Wu Zhang was working at the King Wok restaurant in Brooksville, Florida when a customer noticed Zhang doing something with his credit card under the counter while paying his dinner bill. The customer leaned over the counter to see Zhang swiping his credit card with a portable skimmer. The customer also noticed a skimming device hanging on Zhang's keychain. The customer grabbed the skimmer, key chain device, and his card and took them to the sheriff's office. Detective Brian Mott was given the items for further investigation.
Detective Mott had already been involved in an investigation which has implicated something going on at the Chinese restaurant. Apparently, several other customers had complained of unauthorized transactions on their credit card account. In each case, the customer had visit the Chinese restaurant just before the first fraudulent charge showed up on their credit card account. The victims had all identified the cashier at the King Wok as "Peter." That evening after the incident with the customer's discovery of the skimming devices, Zhang quit his job. Officer Mott's continued investigation lead officials to Wu Zhang who has a criminal history and uses several aliases.
Wu Zhang was arrested in Tampa where he is being held without bond due to his criminal history and lack of permanent address. The authorities have not yet been able to determine how many credit card customers have been victimized by Wu Zhang; however, Bank of American has already traced 14 customer accounts with fraudulent charges to the King Wok restaurant. The skimming devices have been given to the U.S. Secret Service for their evaluation in determining how many and who the consumers are. The actual amount of fraudulent charges racked up by Zhang is yet to be determined. The sheriff's office has an ongoing investigation.