December 22, 2009
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News: Romanian CC Thief Caught In TN Sting
Incidents have gradually increased relating to the victimization of Americans who have become the victims of several credit card thefts based out of Russia and other foreign countries. Typically, these cases are handled through the legal systems of the countries in which the alleged card thefts took place; however, a Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. Federal Court extradited a Romanian man from England to face charges related to the theft of over 1,000 credit card accounts of American card holders. A Federal grand jury issued the order to bring Florin Muresan to the United States for charged of stealing the credit card numbers and then selling them for more than $1,000.
According to the Tennessee Federal court, documents that were recently unsealed showed that Muresan electronically transmitted the stolen credit card information for a price of $1,100 to a Secret Service agent located in middle Tennessee. Unaware of the sting operation, Muresan agreed to send the agent more than 1,000 credit card numbers in exchange for the money. Visa and MasterCard, the world's two largest card networks, reviewed a portion of the information that Muresan transmitted and verified that at least 20 of the card accounts' information was not issued to Muresan and that he did not have authorization to use them.
Florin Muresan, a Romanian natural was arrested in London last June. After the Federal Court action, he was transported to a Nashville, Tennessee facility last week where he awaits trial. Muresan will remain in prison until his trial which according to Federal law, must be held within 70 days of his first appearance in the local Federal court. The credit card thief faces up to ten years in a Federal U.S. prison and up to a $250,000 fine. It is not known if Muresan may have participated in any other fraud incidents.